Minimalism Motivation

While running with a friend two Mondays ago, she said something very profound. (Well she says a lot of profound things but this one stuck, given my Fall Goals (and my total failure to start number 3.)) 

She said (I'm paraphrasing) "...Decluttering has the most impact on your life and free time but it is the most difficult to do..." 

The second part of her statement ("but is the most difficulty to do...") had never crossed my mind. I just thought I was being lazy by not getting to my piles of 'stuff'. But in reality that stuff has meaning to me, it represents a feeling, a sentiment, an event, a part of my life when I decided to acquire the item. The process of getting rid of items is admitting that what you thought would be useful is no longer. You have changed your mind, your viewpoint, your priorities. 

My realization is: Decluttering is an emotional process. It requires reflection, contemplation, decision making and it is a physical realization of poor decisions made in the past, or that you have outgrown your past decisions, emotions, sentiments. 

Mari Kondo says it best  "...when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too.” And to be honest, that is a lot of work. Especially if you haven't been putting your affairs and past in order for a while. (Here is where I admit I have craft projects that are over 10 years old! And i'm still convinced that I will get to them. Seriously. Still convinced.)

All of this means that I have to look at 'decluttering' as more of a process, rather than a task. I've decided on a three prong approach to this process:

1. Provide myself with end product goals - describe in detail what the benefits from this process will be, find realistic images of what I would like my living situation to look like, and express the feelings I have felt post previous decluttering sessions
2. Research tools, tricks and skills required to most efficiently complete the decluttering
3. Reward myself of successes, big or small

Believing that I am going to go home after work and spend 2 hours going through my piles of stuff in my basement is unrealistic. 

End Product Goals
There are two end goals for me 

1. A beautifully simple and minimal home - so that I can relax in it, and not feel like I have to fix something, or clean, or that the walls are coming in at me
2. A simpler, less stuffed life - This means I will have more freedom to be spontaneous, to be outdoors and sleep more

While images of these types of rooms really help....

When a place is removed of stuff, my eyes can float towards the outdoors.

Via Decoist - I love the warmth, it's not stark but not cluttered. Everything seems like it has a purpose. Very zen. 

I have stuff. I will always have stuff (Sorry Mari Kondo). But if it all has a place, and there is more space than items - then rooms can look like this. - Speaking of which - Mari Kondo's apartment does not have stuff.

Tool, Tricks & Skills

Before Starting

1. Get all of my bins in a row - Donation, toss and to be organized later



Via

• The ‘to be organized later’ bin is important in the Mari Kondo method where you organize items with the same purpose, rather than by where they are currently located, it will allow you to collect all of the writing / arts and craft items into one area and then clean those

1. Clean out my car and check when your donation centers are open
• I believe the most demoralizing part of decluttering is still having donation boxes around after a full day of decluttering. It works better for me if I finish my day with a drive to my local charity to drop off boxes - while this is not always possible, putting them in my car to be taken away the very next day also helps clear the space
2. Get ready the week before
• Make sure I have the bin/boxes I need to sort
• Tidy up my house (dishes!), it is very daunting to start a big clean when a little clean hasn’t been done
• Get other tasks out of the way – bills to pay? Need to get my car serviced? Have to return some items? Make sure that those are done because they will nag on me, and I will likely do them in advance of a large decluttering session
3. Know my most productive time of the day
• Making sure that I start in my most productive time of the day is important to having the decision making power required to go through the volume of items in a decluttering session
4. Music
• Download a CD or a few songs I currently love – Having those beats going on in the background really helps me get into my groove. Sometimes I listen to one song on repeat, belting out the lyrics and I move around the house. I also like listening to the radio, nothing like a bit of CBC Radio 1 or 2 to get you through a Saturday. Alternatively, I also have been getting into podcats. The one problem with them, is that if they require concentration, I typically stop my task and sit and listen. But they are good for doing sedentary organizing, like going through my receipt drawer. Or putting printed photos into chronological order
5. Water & food
• How many times I have been a few hours into cleaning or organizing or garden work (or even today) when I look up from my task and realize that I have yet to eat anything or drink any water? (a lot) This is a total energy killer
• I also have to remember to have a good meal before starting the whole decluttering – not just a few crackers and an ice cream sandwich (what I currently have in my house) but a cooked / prepared meal
6. Exercise
• This may not make sense give my comments about how draining I find decluttering, but I also know that I do my best work on the mornings after I go for a pre-work run. Plus it gets me out of slow weekend mode and into go-go gadget mode. It works, well

While Decluttering

There are only a few things that I need to remember while in decluttering mode

1. Do not turn on the TV
• When my energy starts to wane, I usually get some food, and decide to take a little break and turn on the TV. Then three hours later I look up across my house with piles everywhere and a dinner party to get to in less than an hour
• TV is a black hole. Never ever ever turn it on while decluttering
2. Do not get sucked into a deep dive
• Decluttering sessions #1 – 5 is about getting through as much stuff as possible, it's tempting to reminisce while sorting through all your high school grad photos(well not really – my sequin purple dress is something I really don’t need to see again) that can be done when you feel like overall your house is decluttered. Additionally, you may make a decision after decluttering session #2 that you want to get rid of that whole group of items, even if they are organized from least to most flattering angle of the purple sequin mess
• Also – the way to never want to declutter again is by spending 5+ hours decluttering to see that only the back right corner of your guest room is decluttered
3. Multi-task
• Laundry to do? (if I did #3 of the Before Starting list, then I don’t, but haha, I always do) but this could be a good time to wash your technical sports gear in that special washing solution. Lasagna to cook? Does something need to be delivered to your house with a 12 hours arrival window? Do you have to let your craft project dry for intervals of 4 hours?
4. Leave time
• This is the most important and hardest for me to do – I have to learn to leave time to put away the items I’ve decided to keep, package up the items I am donating and put them in my car, and deal with all the other disasters that have come up from this whole process
• Leave time to get to the donation center if it is still open
• Then leave time to relax. Sit down with some wine, have a bubble bath, read a book, dance in on my new found floorspace. Whatever. But I need a few moments to sit down and chill before I head out and tell everyone about the bags of items I managed to remove from my house!

Reward Myself

I struggle with rewards - I never seem to convince myself that I will only be able to have my reward if I complete my task. It's not like I won't buy myself a pair of ski pants only if I clean my house. I'm not going to allow myself to freeze all winter! But smaller rewards do help. Like ice cream sandwiches, manicures, chocolate. 

But what about bigger house items? I know this sounds ridiculous, I've just cleaned out my house and I want to buy something else? But what happens if it is a light I don't need, but have been coveting for a specific spot for the last year? I can and definitely will just keep on using my IKEA light because I haven't been able to justify buying the coveted light. Then every time I look at that light, I'll go - man I need to do another decluttering session so I can get something as cool as this light? 

The other thing I was contemplating as a kind of reward is showing it off. Weird and narcissistic right? But on the other hand - having a clean basement storage area would likely impress everyone who has ever been in my basement. 

Lastly, what if my reward was the declutter itself? The knowledge that I will have more free time? I will smile every time I enter my house. Maybe my goal should be a nice hot cup of tea and a good book and a cozy blanket 2 nights a week?

Anyway - I'm still working on this one.

Misc Items...

I love minimal clean design.... but I just can't seem to make it work in my life! I live in a relatively small apartment with a roommate, so the only real space that I have to myself is my bedroom. I have some storage, and try to organize all of my stuff so that it fits within the confines of the storage but I always seem to have extra things popping up here and there and creating a clutter! For example, I have a birthday present that I am waiting to give someone, all wrapped up, my gloves, which I don't have to wear everyday but still need some mornings, an inspiration board that I need to cover with fabric, spray paint cans that I have to return to the depot, some magazines that I use for ideas every now and again, pens and pencils, mail that I need to deal with, my pile of bags, I take a different one to work almost every day, pillow covers that need to be sewn, the list could go on and on and on.

Oh and I forgot about the constant pile of clothes that need attention! This one looks good though! Via Dwell

I clean everything up, but it all way, and then I turn around and it is all back like this! Via Dwell

What should I do? What do you do? It is getting to the point where it is keeping me up at night. Last night for instance, I had to get up and clean my whole room because I was feeling like I was sinking into a pit walled with clutter. (I think I have a clutter fear!)

My pit walled with clutter.... Via Apartment Therapy

My only solution is setting up an entrance area (if my roommate is cool with it) where we can put our miscellaneous items... Or is that just diverting the clutter? Should I just give up on many of these projects and throw the items away? I don't know what to do... I think it is time for a good spring clean.

West Elm makes it look so easy to be organized! Via West Elm

What do you think? Do you have the same problem? Is your home bursting at the seams with stuff?....

I wish I had an extra room to store all of my unfinished projects! Unfortunately they have to reside in the same room that I do! via Doorsixteen

Office Space

So I did a lot of de-cluttering at my desk this weekend, and i am feeling pretty confident about my work space... well that is, I was feeling good, until I saw this article from Martha Stewart. She recently opened up her many offices near the Hudson River in New York to show us where the creativity happens. [Note: Yes, the same Hudson River the Airbus crashed into on January 15th, she even has photos here!] The offices are so fun, and personal and are just asking to be used! I think these real images are even more inspiring than flipping through the pages of her magazine! Drop on by Behind the Scenes and read the comments behind these creative workplaces, they totally add to the images!

The office desks

Inspiration Boards

Prop Storage... aka...Heaven

Too good to be true? Well I talked to one of my friends who worked there on an internship and she said that is exactly how the offices look! Amazing! Although, I guess I shouldn't be that shocked, if any office would be clean and organized, it would be Martha's!

Keep it clutter free....

I'm inspired to clean this weekend. I am finishing up my 6 month work project soon and I need to start tying up some loose ends. It also looks like it will be a chilly weekend in most of Canada, so for all of those who are bummed about not being able to spend it outside, maybe some de-cluttering will help fill the void!

By Monday I hope my desk looks like this:

Warren Smith

Charge away....

How many items do you charge on a regular basis? I charge 3, my phone, ipod and camera. The sight of those tangled cords lying on my floor gives me anxiety! (And apparently I am not the only one) To combat this, against my better judgement to live minimally, I have done some charging station window shopping. Here are my top 5 choices (FYI – my choice criteria was based on - like most things in my life - beauty, cleverness, and functionality….)

1. Bedford Smart Recharge Station: This is the first charge station I ever laid my eyes on(while browsing Pottery Barn)! Despite seeing many other choices, I am still drawn to this one because of the clean lines, the detail in the handle and the functionality of the drawer. I just love the thought of having a drawer to handle all incoming mail etc. It is a nice little unit which I think would greatly decrease the clutter at the front door!


2. The Sanctuary by Blue Lounge: This modern super sleek charging station was featured in Azure Magazine. I like that it’s compact, sleek, modern, and functional. There is extra storage level below the top shelf, and the felt top keeps your gadgets from sliding around. It also has built-in adaptors which are compatible with hundreds of different gadgets. This frees up your charge cord for somewhere else, like your travel bag! The only downside is if you own a device that they don’t have an adapter for!



3. Ikea – DIY: This one by lifehacker makes my list because I love that it is only 3 dollars and it actually doesn’t look too bad! You could eve style it up a bit (glue/tape some fun paper on the sides) and it would be awesome! I would probably drill a bigger hole in the bottom corner for the power bar to go through. The larger hole might also add some needed ventilation.



4. Stelton Super Charger: This small sleek unit was featured in Style at Home (September 2008). I like the compact format – it would be great for taking with you and the sleek silver trim adds some nice style. I am worried that it might be too small, and the circular shape might make the square devices being charged look messy.



5. Charging Bulletin Board: If you have enough room on the wall this is a great multipurpose unit to not only to organize your gadgets but also keep yourself organized. I could totally see this between my entrance and kitchen. Listen to some tunes while cooking, while also not having a long distance to write down a grocery list! I would probably cover the cork with some pretty fabric or paper...

Here is to many years of stress free charging!

Easy Eco Mondays

Little addition for the rest of summer - a weekly post to plump up the conscious part of Free Form. Easy Everyday Eco Ideas.

Since moving into the new apartment I have noticed a rusty - orange residue (sometimes slimy and always smelly) between the tiles in the shower. I don't know exactly what it is, but I am taking a guess that it is Mildew or Mold. So how do I get rid of Bathroom Mildew and Mold naturally?

Eva Maienchild over at Do it Yourself wrote a good article on Natural Household Cleaners for Everyday Chores

To summarize her article, for Mildew (and also an all purpose cleaner) mix:

1/4 cup baking soda (or 2 teaspoons of Borax)

1/2 cups white vinegar

Via Blabble

I would consider reading up on Borax a little more before using it, especially since I was told to lay out Borax when we had some ants coming in our back door at my last house.

If what we have is Mold then mix:
2 parts water
1 part Hydrogen Peroxide (check out its many benefits)

The greatest part about these things is that they are super simple, and I don't even have to spend a cent! I might have to buy a good brush to get into that depression between the tiles however...... I wonder if there are any bamboo brushes out there?