Decluttering toys for a brand new year

After Christmas is the perfect time to make the New Year's Resolution of decluttering the toys. In our house, we have birthdays early in the New Year - even more motivation to make room for the new favourites.

Since I do regular toy audits, I don't have large dump piles. But my my youngest is now school-age, so there are quite a few toys that will not be missed much.

What's gone

Mr Potato Head and a puzzle or two went to a friend (always my first choice). My favourite charity shop also benefited from my constant search and seizure of tiny unloved treasures. It never stops. I try to remember my own advice on toy decluttering and the Top 10 Toys List.

A small building set went on Trademe - it's a quality set but we got lots more Lego and Brainbox for Christmas, and those are what we'll build on.

A shallow storage tray, reclaimed from wooden puzzles, became the Lego tray - much more accessible and stored under the couch.

Other bulky items on their way to another home...



The biggest win for the big picture was selling the kids' art tables.

My sister had these made and they are great. But kids grow.

It wasn't a large cash payout, but it was like the right move in those sliding number puzzles.

The student desks came downstairs into the office space with us...

The dollhouse moved into the toyroom.

Now the lounge looks one grade clearer and two grades more grownup.

Who am I kidding? I've just cleared space for bigger Lego projects!

What are your New Year decluttering goals?

Biodegradable "Plastic" Wrap from FriendlyPak

I got really excited when FriendlyPak first gave away a roll of BioBag - a biodegradable "plastic" wrap. I didn't win, but I still wanted it.

We were almost at the end of our roll of supermarket plastic wrap. Plastic pollution is a serious problem, and this flexible, nonrecyclable stuff kills animals every day and isn't great for human health either. I'm thrilled to see an earth-friendly choice.

As a new product, it seemed to take forever to find out how I could buy it. The product was announced in April, but didn't seem to be orderable from the advertised outlet. So when I saw one big catering roll in  Wise Cicada, I impulse-bought it for $50. (It is now available through ecostore.)

We didn't use plastic wrap for much anyway - sealing the ends of cucumbers, mostly. We use wax paper for the kids' lunches. With a catering-size roll, I'm using it for everything!

Results

Good

The wrap performs well as a wrap, sticking to the end of the cucumber and protecting it.

It worked well on the kids' sandwiches too at yesterday's picnic - held two together very nicely.

I wrapped the end of a frozen Cheezly (vegan cheese) in it. (It's still fine, but I think I should have wrapped the whole Cheezly because it didn't stick on when left in a freezer drawer jumble. My bad.)

And I can see when I empty the compost that the wrap shows signs of breaking down as promised.

Cautions

The biodegradable wrap is more fragile than regular plastic wrap, which is not too surprising for an organic product that is going to break down soon. I can't use the tug and unroll method with the large heavy catering roll - the wrap stretches so much from the weight. So I use scissors to cut off the pieces I need. It doesn't have a tear strip on the box anyway, but that's fine because a plastic or metal tear strip is just more to go on a landfill.

After a few days of protecting a cucumber end in the crisper, the wrap is already showing a hint of its biodegradability compared to the plastic wrap, which I could often reuse. This is only a small problem because we usually have to slice off the end of the cut cucumber anyway, and I can toss the used wrap with the old slice (and a clear conscience) and get a new piece.

Also unfortunately, our roll has been gouged by something about 5cm in from the edge.  This hasn't impacted us much as we haven't needed large pieces yet, but I wish I'd saved my receipt.

Update: the cool people at FriendlyPak are sending me a complimentary roll!

Recommendation

Absolutely! It works, and it's biodegradable. While I have to treat this wrap a bit differently to ordinary plastic, it is worth it. And when more people buy these choices, the price will come down, so...

What earth-friendly products do you invest in?

Taking Decluttering Public - Group Clutter

It's no surprise that 1/4 of these 8 Habits of Organised People involve decluttering. And even though I've been far too quiet lately, the decluttering has continued...and it's grown!

With the goal of decluttering professionally, I have decluttered at my sister's house (hopefully more on this later.) I am also decluttering for an entire club.

As the new president of Explorers, I have a serious job on my hands. The previous long-serving and super hard working president is also a confirmed packrat, who doesn't think we should get rid of anything if we've spent money on it.

No prizes for guessing what the club storage cupboard looks like.

Along with the overstuffed shelves of activity resources, we have three library carts of books and games. Rather, we had about five carts' worth stacked onto three carts.

Making the Decluttering Case

In home decluttering, you will encounter resistance from those attached to the stuff. At an organisation level, it will be worse. You will hear all the usual enemy whispers, this time on behalf of the organisation.

We have a treasure trove of super cool stuff in the cupboard. Here is why the club agreed to declutter:

Dependence

The storage cupboard was so full that things only fit tightly packed in a few ways. Only one person really knew where to find things and where to put them away again so we could slam the door closed at the end of the day. Nobody else was sure of navigating the cupboard, and nobody wanted to.

This is a dangerous state for a club to be in!

Wasted Time and Energy

Every activity day needed a major extra commitment simply to take out materials and put them away again. Often we would still be setting up and in a rushed mess as people arrived.

Because only one person knew the right way to pack up (but often other people had to put stuff away anyway), the storage cupboard needed regular reorganisations (at least once a year) where many people stayed for hours to take everything from the cupboard and put it all away again.

People aren't too keen about this. Constantly shifting and sorting stuff is not a rewarding volunteer job.

Damage

Overstuffed storage damages the stored material.

For example, on our library carts, we had books in every crevice. Books stacked on top of each row of books plus piles on top. It was too heavy for one person to move. There were so many games that they spilled off the sides.

And when we moved them in and out of the cupboard, stuff on the edges got crushed against everything in our way. Of course, we had to pile other boxes on top of the books and games carts to get the cupboard door closed.


Access and Utility

The usual clutter complaints also apply

• People could hardly browse the library carts for fear of starting an avalanche. Small children certainly couldn't do it. There was always a mess to clean up simply from people trying to get things out.
• We often rebought materials because we didn't know we already owned them - or suspected we might but couldn't find them in time.

Decluttering Process

We've had two decluttering marathons already - the library carts and the general cupboard shelves.

Library

Our librarian defined a purpose for our library. This meant when we looked at a book or game, we could see it in the context of its use for our club, not just how cool it was.

We also took into account how easy it is for Aucklanders to get books from our public library.

The games and books now fit on their carts.

Shelves

I didn't know what was on the shelves, but my purpose was at least to

• remove any damaged or outdated material
• reduce duplication
• consider the value of all materials for the club's future

This is still a work in progress. We only got through about half the shelves, and we took out lots and lots of stuff.


What happened to the stuff?

After library clearout, before Open Day Sale

It's at my house. Good thing I'm an expert declutterer.

We sold some for about $400 at our annual Open Day, and a few large items sold on TradeMe. We are donating the rest.

Beneficiaries have been:

• NZAGC (our national org)
• Franklin Discoverers
• Playcentre
• Gifted Education Centre
• Montessori

After Open Day Sale and after cupboard clearout

Today, after many donations.

Someday very soon, I will post a photo of a clear floor. If this had been an easy task, someone else would have done it long ago.

The lesson?

Groups need to be even more careful than individuals with their decisions about stuff. With shared responsibility comes avoided responsibility.

Has anyone else encountered group clutter in your organisation?

The punchline?

The cupboard is still full.

5 Productive New Year's Workouts

Resolved to have a fitter New Year?  Here are some free holiday workouts that leave you with more than just an endorphine rush.

Caution:  Don't try all of these workouts in one day without medical advice.

1.  Try on all the clothes you own - a foolproof way to get rid of a few things and step down from holiday eating. 

Hey, the workout's not done until you've folded and put away everything!

2.  Empty your worst storage closet, declutter, and replace.

3.  Get in the garden - check out container gardening if you have no garden space (those big pots are great for for weightlifting).

4.  Clean the fridge and pantry.

5.  Play tag with the kids (or other fun-lover of your choice).

Happy New Year, everyone!

Secondhand smarts - on display

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we've practically been on a spending spree over the last few months.  TV, food processor, car...

All of it secondhand, of course!

This was another serendipitous peek in the back room at ye olde favourite charity shop in the hope of finding...exactly what I found.

History

In our previous home, we had an broken tile fireplace and brick chimney.  We demolished that ourselves and installed a beautiful built-in rimu wood, mirror, and glass display cabinet.  The new owners loved it too, so we made a quick and cheap purchase to hold our lovely things in our new house.   It has featured in previous posts, but here it is again.

From a distance, it is OK - the top is fine but all the bottom cupboard doors are poor replacements and don't close well.  It doesn't fit in the dining room but everything in it gets used there.  And it crowds that corner.

But for $50, it did the trick.  My decluttering left quite a lot of empty spots.

Looking here, looking there...
We had been halfheartedly seeking a corner cupboard on TradeMe but it was hard work. 

But in the charity shop, I could look at my new prize, and send DH to look at it, and we agreed that it was just perfect! 

Out with the old (sold for $51) and in with the new.

Now these beautiful things are in their natural home, the dining room!

Moving so many lovely things from one cabinet to another got me wondering how many quality wine and other liquor glasses of different shapes we actually need - we rarely drink and only ever drink wine with company.  (It seemed like a grownup thing to do to have wine glasses on the wedding register.)  Stay tuned.

So another after picture is now a before:

 We can now enjoy our whole lounge window.

Light and bright - success!