The method to my madness

Seems I'm not getting comment notifications, so my apologies to Jess64 who has left a few comments.

Jess commented on how methodical I am being, so I thought I would tell you a bit about the method.

The fact that I am only committing to 1 thing per day helps when I'm low in motivation,  time or energy.  I can totally handle one thing.  There's always a little mess somewhere that needs to be tidied away.  While I'm doing it, I assess each thing - "Do I want to put it away or do I want to give it away?"  When it's a small mess then the micro-decisions that can be so exhausting don't add up as much.  Sometimes I want to put all the things away and as I do so, find other things that can go.

As an example, while I was unpacking the dishwasher I went to put these two mugs to the back of the cupboard.  While they are perfectly lovely fine china mugs, they were the ones I chose last every single time.  So instead of putting them back in an already full cup cupboard I got rid of them.

The act of decluttering also builds its own momentum.

A woman in the Buy Nothing Group I'm a member of works in a dementia ward of a nursing home and is always looking for things for her residents.  Yesterday she was coming to get a few craft items so I asked her what else she was looking for.  She left with the craft items and a couple of vases which was great and I have somewhere to creatively rehome things where they are needed, rather than burdening the waste supply.

If I looked at everything in our house as a whole, I would take myself off to bed for the duration, but when it's just a little mess to tidy and one thing to find, I can manage.

When I decided to blog this process again, I created a list of places to declutter.  Importantly, it includes areas where I can get easy wins (the boots in the Garage), and also some easy steps into harder areas (yarn, sewing stuff and Tupperware).

Boots in the garage
Picture frames in the shed
Yarn not taken in Guild destash
Tupperware in garage
Jars in garage
Habby - hemming tapes and belt kits only
CDs
DVDs
Kitchen odds and ends drawer
Crockery sets
Unused furniture

Holding myself publicly accountable is helpful.  Also, I really do need to get rid of those boots in the garage.  They came as a bulk lot I bought at auction two years.  I wanted the gorgeous shoe stretchers and got the cupboard and several pairs of boots and shoes as well.