Everything old...

Seven Things is back!

Image from Trusted Clothes.com

Way, way back when this blog was active I had a few goes at decluttering following a set of principles inspired by Earth Chick's  Seven Things Project.

There were 21 weeks in 2010/11, 6 weeks in Winter 2007 and 78 weeks 2007-2009.  All up 6,538 items were disposed of - most were donated for reuse or sale, some were recycled and some went to landfill.

Things have changed in the 7 years since I last challenged myself to remove seven things, nett, per week from my home.

My mother died in June 2011.  The sudden cessation of the challenge after 21 weeks coincided with increased caring responsibility.  There wasn't the time or the bandwidth in her last two months and then there was the family home to empty.  I remember being able to clear the house swiftly and it is at least partly due to the practice I had gained in the challenge.

TOF and I bought a house two years later.  Merging two houses into one meant much discussion was had about which of the two of everything we should keep.  Unlike other couples of our age we upsized so while we did divest ourselves of possessions we didn't have to be very ruthless - well he didn't - I was the one who did most of the packing and actual physical moving.

In December 2015 we married and acquired more things.

Four years ago I was diagnosed with a chronic illness.  My energy levels wax and wane and a flare late last year left me off work for the first quarter of this year.  I no longer have the energy to deal with all of our possessions and I resent the time it takes to maintain it all.  So I'm having another go at taking responsibility for the clutter I bring into our life and ridding us of the excess.


I've looked at lots of different decluttering methods.  There's the 10 items a day challenge and the 31 day challenge where you get rid of 1 item on day one increasing up to 31 items on day 31 and the themed challenges (there are lots of them).  I've read Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and that Swedish Death Cleaning one.  And spent endless hours watching minimalism videos on Youtube.

And wouldn't you know it, the method that suits me best is good old seven things.  It's simple, sustainable and does not require more energy than I have on any given day.  There are no set things on set days for me to rebel against and it builds in the critical thinking about possessions that is key.  I will not limit myself to only seven things.  If there are more things in a week, so be it.  If there are fewer - my bad, but that's life.  There is also no end date.  No pressure, no unrealistic goals.  Progress not perfection.

I will report in each Monday across three categories

IN - what has come into our home
OUT - what has left our home
SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT - what I've creatively transformed from materials in our home rather than discarding it.

The only rule is outgoings, minus incomings should be greater than or equal to seven things. 

In
The stuff I bring in to our home. This includes:

• stash items of ANY kind
• other forms of entertainment such as books and magazines
• clothes and accessories
• homewares 
• gifts received 

Exempt are consumables such as food and other groceries and items borrowed from the library or elsewhere (but not items borrowed from the library and copied for keeping because that is (a) illegal and (b) not in the spirit of the challenge).

Out
Items deliberately weeded from the houses. Consumables do not count. Completely worn out and non-fixable/transformable clothing, household items etc do.  I will try and repurpose before I give it away, but if clothing is still wearable I'd prefer to donate it than cut it.

Shake-it-All-About

This category is about transformation. After the first challenge I realised it is important to acknowledge the creative transformation of items already in the home. It might be as simple as the use of stash buttons on an old blouse to revamp it instead of buying a new blouse or other transformation of clothes. It might be the creation of something new for ourselves or others from stash.