Declutter November mini-challenge – your greenhouse, garden or shed

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 1 November 2011 in decluttering | 1 comment

Here’s the first mini-challenge of the Decluttering in November challenge: in addition to your usual one thing every day, find five things to get rid of from your greenhouse, garden or shed.

I was going to leave this one until later in the month but, if last year is anything to go by, our worlds might be under a blanket of white by then so I’ll decided it would be better to declutter while the sun shines :)

So anyway, for this one, you need to get rid of five things from whatever garden/growing space you have.

This is going to be easier for some people than others. If you’ve only got a few houseplants or herbs on the kitchen window sill, you might struggle but do you have any unwanted old plastic plant pots lying around? decorative planters/pots or even vases you no longer use? multiple half bottles of BabyBio that could be condensed into one? Or even the plants themselves – anything you don’t want any more? People often give large plants away on our local Freecycle/Freegle group.

For grow-your-own people with more space: it’s the pretty much end of the growing year so think about what you’ve not used in the last 12 months – any pots, container or tools you could get rid of? Anything broken beyond repair? Because we growers love to reuse things, many of our gardens/allotments resemble junk heaps of possibilities: I’m not advocating getting rid of those planks that might become raised beds next year or the barrel than might become a waterbutt but to look at everything again: be realistic and honest with yourself, and think if someone else might get better use out of it than you. This sort of thing isn’t going to sell at charity shops but, again, all this sort of thing regularly turns up on our Freecycle/Freegle list and there are an increasing number of gardening community groups that might be grateful for resources.

On a smaller scale, what about your seed stash – anything you’re not going to grow again that could be passed on? Half bottles of feeds/fertilisers that are taking up shelf space? And what about spare/old growing books?

Have a look around and see what can go :)

Declutter November is under way!

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 1 November 2011 in decluttering | 10 comments

I mentioned last week that I’m going to set myself a decluttering “challenge” for November – get rid of one thing every day.

I’m also going to set some weekly themed mini-challenges to get rid another five things each week, so by the end of the month, 50 things should be gone from the house.

It’s a bit of a two-fold plan: 1) get rid of some unwanted junk and 2) by doing it daily for a sustained period to make me more conscious of the stuff around me and look at things in a new “do we need or even want this?” light.

I asked if anyone else fancied a clearout too and a good few people jumped on board:

• Gemma
• John, my partner in crime – we’ll be getting rid of 50 things each!
• Lynsey aka Swirlyarts
• Louba
• Jules
• Linda
• Gigibird
• Sam
• sara
• Courtney
• Rachel
• Ellen Perrin
• @Eco_Chicken
• UPDATED TO ADD: SMSDesignJewel
• Debbie
• katherine
• Susan
• Martina
• bookstorebabe
• greenandtidy
• Su

Collectively, we’re going to get rid of a lot of junk!

I’ll announce the first mini-challenge this afternoon but until then crew (and anyone else who wants to join in!), let’s take off our clutter blinkers and get going! :)

Anyone else up for it? If so, leave a comment below and I’ll add you to the list

UPDATED TO ADD: I’ve add the new sign-ups to the list – 21 22 of us at this count. That’s means over a thousand things are going to leave our collective houses – yay!

Decluttering “challenge” for November

Posted by louisa on Monday 24 October 2011 in decluttering | 14 comments

I’m going to set myself a decluttering “challenge” for November – and I’d love it if some other people joined in.

It seems a good time to do it – the season has definitely turned now (to cold up here in the northern hemisphere, to warm down on the flip side) so we can sort through our summer/winter gear to put it into storage and clear out the surplus at the same time. In the northern hemisphere as well, we’re retreating into our homes more – more time to get annoyed with all the junk and more time to deal with it. And for people who celebrate Christmas and other holidays, it’ll help with the pre-family-descending tidying preparations and a reminder about how this year’s new gifts can be next year’s clutter if not chosen with care.

The “challenge” will be a pretty simple one: get rid of one thing every day In practical terms for me that’ll mean consigning one thing every day to our “to go to the charity shop” box, actually giving it to someone else in person or, for the odd thing, list on eBay/Gumtree.

I’m calling it a “challenge” rather than an actual challenge because, to be frank, it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m going to set myself mini-“challenges” each week too, in addition to the main one, to focus my attention in a few specific areas – but even still, it’ll probably be quite easy. The reason I still want to do it though is to help start to form a habit – to change how I look at things around our home. I don’t know about you guys but I get really blind to certain things around the house then suddenly I see them and think “why on earth have we left that there for so many months?”. Instead, I want to be see everything and think “do we need or even just want that in our lives still? could someone else make better use of it than we do?”. That change of outlook has to start somewhere.

I also want to actually do it every day, rather than just saying “get rid of 30 things in the month” because I think that’ll be more useful for building the habit. With the mini-“challenges”, it’ll probably be about 50 things in total – and if I get my partner John on board, he has to find his own dang 50, no sharing ;)

Anyone else up for it?

Jealous

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 15 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, meta | 13 comments

As well as learning how to screenprint, we fed our neighbours’ cats this weekend – both the ever-so-friendly white cat next door and the two huge timid-but-getting-friendly black & white chaps next door but one. We feed them quite regularly because our neighbours are social divas & jetsetters – but don’t mind a bit because it only takes five minutes and we get lots of cat hugs as “payment”. I always come back covered in white fluff and get sniffed accusingly by the dog & our (black) cats.

But feeding the cats does have one negative aspect for me: jealousy.

Next door’s house can only be described as a show home. They bought the rundown house cheaply before the boom and spent a huge amount of money refitting it completely. It looks like something from a magazine – the seamless granite worksurfaces buffed to perfection, the wet room sparkling, the guest bedroom like a suite in a boutique hotel. A lovely combination of pristine modern design and wonderful reclaimed vintage items.

Next-door-but-one’s isn’t as expensively polished but my, it’s lovely. It’s more shabby chic – which is more my preferred style – with the emphasis on the chic not the shabby. Muted red & white lino squares set on the diagonal in the kitchen, mismatched dining table chairs, pale walls with coloured woodwork and original (Victorian) features up the wazoo. It feels cosy but relaxed, like a home should.

Can you see why I feel jealous?

A number of my friends have really nice homes but there is something about our neighbours’ houses, particularly next-door-but-one, that really gets to me. I think it’s because, while the layouts are surprisingly different and we have a side extension, the houses are structurally the same so it feels like we could have such gorgeous houses if we threw enough time/money at it. … But what we’ve got – and especially what we’re slowly working on making our own – is fine, more than fine, great in fact.

It feels a bit like what happened with the Kindle a while ago – a desire for something being built up through repeat exposure, not because of a genuine need but it’s shown me what’s possible. Because I generally avoid the broadcast & print media, don’t enjoy browsing/being in shops, and shy away from “stuff” blogs or websites (the only blogs about pretty “stuff” I read are ones showing you how to make said lovely things), I’m not regularly exposed to things that provoke desire in this way. It scares me that these houses, which are not using psychological tricks to sell me things, provoke such a strong emotion: it makes me realise how vulnerable I would be to advertisements, or style magazines.

I find myself thinking about what our house is not – stylish, polished, finished – rather than what it is (a place for us to be happy together, and we are very happy here).

I’m not sure how I’ll get over it, or at least learn to deal with it. Perhaps I should do the self-esteem building/depression-beating trick of writing a list of positive aspects, things I like, about our house to review whenever I’m feeling jealous of the other people’s houses or whatever.

Any other suggestions on how to deal with it?

(Photo by namida-k)

Less than 12 things in 11 clothing challenge update

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 2 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, less than 12 clothes challenge | 5 comments

Since we’re through two months of 2011 now, I thought it would be a good time to have a quick update on how everyone is doing in the “buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011” challenge. Seems like everyone I’ve heard from is doing pretty well!

• Taphophile has blogged about her progress – she bought two things in January but nothing in February – and is gearing up to sewing stuff in March.
• LynS has also blogged about her progress – she’s bought nothing this month after one thing in January.
• Digitigrade says “[I’m doing] Very well! Haven’t bought a single thing :) Can’t bloody afford to anyway!!”
• AuntyRubbish is on target too: “[I’ve been] really good! Bought one thing a month, after lots of thinking first.”
• Jan is on target too – she bought two jackets to layer to replace an old barbour jacket – and found some bargain underwear too (the latter is on our exceptions list).
• SBlove_crafts is on the “bought nothing yet” bandwagon – well, not quite bought nothing: “Have bought patterns and fabric to make my own instead :)”
• Maria hasn’t bought anything “other than a pack of underwear” and two shirts at Goodwill – the latter for an unusual reason — a pirate themed fancy dress party!
• bookstorebabe wasn’t necessarily sticking to the “12 in 11” rule but vowed to be more conscious of her buying and after a big clearout, she knows what she’s got in her wardrobe so “at least I’ll be just buying only what I need. And being mindful of what I buy. I have fewer clothes, but have nicer things to wear-really, I don’t have to keep every worn out thing to ‘wear around the house’. More room in the closet. A less daunting pile of laundry, hurray!”
• Su, who is doing a World War 2-style coupon challenge instead of 12 items, says she’s spent “£10 & 10 coupons” this month on yarn to make a cardigan/shrug and slippers.
• And finally me – as I said in my end of Feb review, I’ve not bought anything so far this year – either from my quota or from my exceptions list – so it’s going well but I think I can feel the “I’m bored with my stuff” cravings setting in so March might not be quite as thrifty…
• UPDATE: Oops, I read Colleen’s update then forgot to include it: she’s in the bought-nothing-yet club too – even though an evil gremlin is destroying her t-shirt collection…

If you’re also doing the challenge, how is it going for you? And any late entrants to join in the fun?

My 20 year old socks and other long-time-service clothing

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 15 February 2011 in anti-consumerism, frugal | 5 comments

Yesterday, Ilona on Life After Money was talking getting her money’s worth out of things – and referred to some really old underpants she owns. It got me thinking about my elderly underwear.

I have some knickers I bought when I first started going out with John. We’ve been together for nearly nine years. I bought a pair of knickers with a penguin on it and another pair with a cat – the penguin ones are a little scruffy but the cat ones are still almost my favourite pants and are still in regular circulation – worn probably about once a fortnight and still going strong.

Elsewhere in my underwear drawer, I’ve got some slipper socks from my mid-teens (about 15 years ago – someone dropped a BNWT pair in my mum’s shop and after sitting in their lost-and-found box for a while, I was the lucky recipient of them) and a pair of novelty socks that my childhood neighbour/friend Katie bought me one Christmas. I can’t remember what year it was exactly when she bought them for me but I suspect it was when we were about 11 or 12 (19/20 years ago). They’re getting a little bobbly and threadbare on the heel now but still wearable – and still worn regularly. I’ve never worked out what sort of animal is ice skating though – a brown penguin? a bear?

Most of my visible wardrobe is newer – because of changing styles (I’m not exactly a fashionista but my style has definitely evolved over the last couple of decades – shell suits were in style when Katie bought me those socks!) and because of changing body size – but I still wear a black wool cardigan I bought when I was 16 (and a UK size 8) even though I’m now 31 and … um, not a size 8 by any measure! I’ve also got a tiny sundress I bought the week of my 18th birthday which I still wear – it’s bias cut so stretchy so works as a long top for underneath a jumper.

All but three of John’s jumpers pre-date our relationship and he’s got some t-shirts from when he was about 14 or 15 – including one that feels like silk now, it’s been washed that much!

Do you have any clothes in regular circulation that are due a long-term service award?