Day 1: Declutter by 2012 Challenge

So today, I woke up full of good intentions of decluttering all of our bedrooms. I started off quite well. I had packed my daughter's clothes and shoes that no longer fit her into a paper bag ready to give away to friends.

I went through my books and got rid of 18 books ready to on-sell or give away.

I went through my wardrobe and packed up a large number of clothes to give away (1 large garbage bag).

Then off to the op shop I went to hand in all of the things that I wanted to give away.....

...and came back with 1 dress and 2 books for me; and 2 pairs of shorts for my daughter.

*sigh* Ah well. At least, I didn't come back with more stuff than I had given away.

....Then after that...well I got distracted. See, the day looked like this:

This is the second Christmas in a row when the grass is still green!

It was a beautiful day at ONC*!

So we ended up visiting friends instead and doing this:

Yep, its now been over a year since all water restrictions have stopped. And for the first time, my children celebrated the Christmas period the way I remembered celebrating it in my childhood - with good friends, a sprinkler and of course a water fight!

A wonderful day...and yes, sometimes, socialising *is* more important than my little challenges!

(But I promise, I'll get back to it tomorrow!)

*ONC = Our Nation's Capital

PS: Oh but I did manage to list some of my items on Ebay! Now I know I had my decluttering rules in my previous post which included my selling rules, but my children are also now old enough to make the call on how *they* declutter. They have decided that some of their items should be sold rather than given away.

PPS: In the spirit of shameless promotion of our Ebay items click here to see the stuff the children and I are selling.

Clutter....(yep its that time again!)

Hello everyone!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas! I spent the day catching up with family and friends. It was busy but also stress-free. Can't get any better than that!

Speaking of stress, lately, I've noticed that my house is once again getting a bit cluttered. I don't know about you but clutter is something that I have to remain constantly on top of. When I let things get too cluttered, then I find that I get stressed more easily. To me, nothing is more peaceful or relaxing as coming home to a tidy and clutter-free home.

Amazingly, despite not really buying a lot of stuff, eventually my house becomes cluttered with stuff I don't really need or use any more. The last time I de-cluttered was about a year ago.

My clutter-free home this time last year

So the last week or so (and in between Christmas celebrations), I've been going through each room and sorting out the stuff. Here are my rules for decluttering and sorting:

1. If the stuff has not been used in the last 3 months and I can not name a specific date or event in the next year when I will use it again, then it is gone.

2. If the stuff is "good" but not high value or highly sought-after, then it is offered to friends and what doesn't get taken goes to charity or freecycle.

3. If the stuff is "good" but is of high value or highly sought-after, then it goes on the for-sale pile.

4. If the stuff needs repair but I haven't made the time to fix it in the last 6 months, then it goes in the bin (I've learnt that even freecyclers don't like most items that are in need of repair!).

So far, I have gone through my daughter's room and have about 2 large washing baskets of stuff that I need to get rid of. My aim is that by January 1 2012, I will have completely decluttered my house.

So over the next 3 days, you may be finding me on here quite a bit blogging how I'm going. (Blogging has always kept me accountable). Wish me luck!

Merry Charisma Wrist Everyone!

Courage

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking a lot about resilience in children for awhile now and thought I'd share this video of a courageous young boy who has showed incredible resilience and courage in the face of a very dark and prolonged period in his life:

Since sharing his video with his Facebook friends and his family, Jonah has posted this update to his video:

My friends were moved by the video and thought I did something important. I was encouraged to upload it to my Facebook page so more people could see it. Maybe it could help someone else going through the same thing. So I linked it Dec. 1st. My Parents saw it for the first time Dec, 2nd.
Then..... all this happened.
I never expected in a million years that it would have such a wonderful impact on so many people. I am truly humbled and truly thankful for all the love, encouragement and support from people all over the world. It's been incredibly overwhelming. I don't know what to say. Thank you so, so much!
Lastly, yes you have seen me happy in a couple short videos replies I posted; I would think that would be a good thing , and yes I do have friends, my High School friends, and I have made friends because when I came out they realized that they had hurt me and that they fealt sorry. The video is real, and true.
In the last few months everything eventually came out in the open, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders; I'm happy, I'm excepted for who I am, I'm more confident and feel stronger every day.
Thank you all, Love and peace to all who are hurting.
Jonah Mowry

Thank you Jonah and love and peace to you too. I hope that your dark days are truly over.