How did my challenge go?

During October I set myself a challenge. To make some progress in decluttering / minimising some possessions.

I made a list of 31 items / categories that most households could probably reduce. Then each day I tried to address the category of that day.

That meant either listing something for sale, recycling it or safely disposing of it (eg. old batteries).

So did I do something every day?

No, not quite. Maybe most days. But that wasn't the point of the challenge. It was about reducing the overwhelm and making progress. So how much progress did I make?

Found a buyer for this unused cookbook :)

I reckon we put 47 items online through the challenge. Our current list is bigger by 20 (compared to pre-challenge) and another 27 have sold. (12 of those came from two people who bought six things each)

We had way too many tools

In addition I've taken a bunch of photos of items I'm still to list.

Record achievement?

I don't keep month-by-month records but that's definitely the most active month in a long time.

I definitely achieved my aim of overcoming overwhelm and getting on with the task.

You can do it any month

While I designed this challenge for me to do in October (partially to get some items listed before Christmas) you can do it at any time. Here's the list of 31 areas.

Get my free book

I've got a little ebook of my tips from selling items. You can get it for free.

One of my favourite tips helps people find more items they like - hence people buying six items. (Yeah!)

Comments

Offline

Yes, by now we all know that smartphones and social media are doing us harm. How do we harness the benefits of them without the destructive effects. The book Offline makes 5 main points. If you've only got a minute, here they are: The addictive design keeps us on online platforms longer. The 'brain hacks' disrupt our brain's ability to function. Humans need "real" interaction, and social media does not deliver this. Technoference (digital over-riding direct interactions at the play ground, coffee shop, dinner table) result in something valuable being lost. Speed of the transformation is astounding. 75% of people are connected, with almost half using social media. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this real-life experiment will be. Going a bit deeper, here are some of my highlights from the book. So what are side-effects? According to various studies, the effects can be grouped into the physiological (poor sleep, neural re-wiring, and increased str...

Big motivator for small living

It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

But wait... there's less!

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