Yo-yo day! Updates and confessions...

Finally! Here's the next installment of Yo-yo Day, all about picking up and putting down and picking up and putting down...

We found the cloth base to the baby gym from this past yo-yo. We'd wrapped a glass lamp in it when we moved, and it was hidden in a box.

We outsmarted ourselves with multipurposing, and left that box unopened for too long.  But the base has now also been donated.

The digital camera yo-yo found new life and energy at our Explorers' Technojunk day. The kids take apart any old technical junk we can find, and they loved discovering the insides of this camera.

The dragon yo-yo is now guarding an outdoor rose plant. They can both be prickly, and they don't seem to mind.

The yo-yo power is strong in this one. 

Yes, the china cup and saucer (the inaugural yo-yo) did not leave our house until last week.

I couldn't think of a use for them.

I tried several times to sell them on TradeMe.

But at last I tucked them in with a pretty collectible plate (also worth something, probably) and I sent them all to seek their fortune in my favourite charity shop.

As a memento of my grandmother, I still have two of her hair ribbons.

Top Clutter - Paper Rules

As promised, the first in the Top Clutter series:  Paper Rules!

Now that the filing cabinet is in its proper home, DH and I teamed up to declutter more stacks of old paper.  The target?  DH's filing system ever since we moved to this house - one poor filing basket.

Easily 90% of the stack was clutter.  Bank statements, insurance information, and papers that were never important.  What a warm feeling, especially because I burned it all in the fireplace.  (Spring is not here every day yet.)

Broken from years of overloading

Paper!

We can't yet live without it, so we need to learn to live with it.

Here is your new attitude:

1. Keep Nothing
2. File any exceptions
3. Review exceptions often

Keep Nothing

You don't want to keep any pieces of paper.  Each piece you keep is a layer in a looming stack next month that will waste lots of time to sort or lots of space to ignore.

File any exceptions

Will I get in trouble?

A tiny minority of papers are so important to your government that they must be exceptions.  Birth certificates, passports, tax documents - these need to be kept in their original form.  If you don't have them, there is a chance you could end up in serious trouble.

A note reminding you what to pack for your child's school trip is not most valuable in its original form.  Stay out of minor trouble by putting the information you need into whatever daily reminder system you have - then get rid of the note (because there will be another note tomorrow and they will gang up on you). 

The more complex your financial situation, the more gray areas there will seem to be.  Again, ask yourself, "Will I get in trouble if I do not have this record?"  If you have the only copy and don't know how to get the information again, it might be an exception.

Will I lose money?

If the paper represents enough money to be important to you, it might be an exception. Receipts may be crucial when something goes wrong.

Some papers (like passports) can be replaced but only for a fee or with a waste of time.  This is another reason to make an exception.

Will I be unhappy?

Some papers mean something to you - they are sentimental.  This is a good thing - as long as you have the space and energy to store these mementos. 

As you look through mementos, most of them may give you a little buzz.  Ask instead whether you would be unhappy if you never saw it again?  Would you notice and miss it?  Could you keep just one of a group of mementos?

These rules may sound tough, but even using them strictly, you will still have more paper than you really want to handle.

Filing

If you don't have a system, you won't find what you kept when you need it.  You may need a plastic stack tray, an accordion file, or a 3 drawer filing cabinet.  We have a 2 drawer filing cabinet and I'm not sure we need that.  It might be that we need it but need to use it better.  Work always in progress.

In any case, design your storage for your papers, not somebody else's guess at what you need.  You may have totally different categories now and 5 years from now.  Be flexible.

Review exceptions often

Within 2 years, most important papers aren't. 

Tax documents are supposed to be kept at least 7 years and I would be wary of tossing them even then.  They could get you out of trouble years from now that you didn't even know could happen.  You can research IRD (or IRS) horror stories at your leisure online.

But as the years pass, some papers like receipts will no longer be needed.

Papers with a short shelf life need to be filed front and centre.  Book yourself an appointment at least once a year to sort and toss.

Stop your paper

Your job is much easier if you can stop paper arriving in the first place.

Online bills and statements

Electronic communication has partly replaced paper.  We are able to choose to read and pay lots of bills online.  Ironically, having switched power suppliers to EnergyOnline, we now receive paper statements again.  I just emailed them about this, and the great news is that we can get online statements.

But National Bank claim that because our bank account has an overdraft, our "statement cannot be suppressed".  I've requested and am still awaiting a logical explananation.

Ads
Someone is regularly ignoring my "NO ADS" message on our box - perhaps because it is in nail polish but probably because they can't read.  I probably need to get another official badge instead.

In our neck of the woods they are even sneakier.  I enjoy our free local paper - but of course it isn't free.  It comes with ads inside it - printed inside and bundled inside.

If you haven't stopped the ads arriving, you can certainly reduce their impact.  Plan not to let them land anywhere but the recycling place.  If your recycling place is not convenient enough, make it so. I used to let the kids play with ads and their pretty coloured pictures, but they know about buying now.

How do you handle your paper?  Are you happy with your system?

Next in the Top Clutter series:  Toys!  (kids and grownups )

There's no place like home

About 15cm worth of old papers burned for heat!

In our old office, there was no room for the filing cabinet (bought at a bargain price when Intel NZ made us all redundant and closed up shop).

It was also closed with plastic baby safety locks.

Not surprisingly, we filed things elsewhere and let the papers in the filing cabinet get old and outdated.

With our new office downstairs came new inspiration!

The top tray is so loaded it has bent.

Cleaning out, moving out

I lightened the load of old paper with all its memories: old technical writing newsletters, history of a successful NIMBY protest against a heliport, old old bank statements...

Then I took out all the folders and instructed the rest of the team to haul the cabinet to its new home right by my new standing desk.  For the first time since we moved to this house, the filing cabinet is actually in our office! Now there's a real chance we'll use it properly.

We still have some catching up to do on the filing.  The next step is to relabel folders so they match our current life.

And when the filing's all done, the filing cabinet will do double duty as a solid step up to access the door to our underfloor space.

Outsmarting your inner hoarder

You know your decluttering enemy - it's you.  You, and that little whisper in your head as you handle each thing that owns you:

"Keep just this one."

When you hear that whisper, fight with all you've got.  Here's some practice ammunition (see bullets :-)

Enemy Whispers

1. I might use this someday.

• Someone else can use this today.

2. I paid good money for this.

• My good money will be worth it once this gets used.

3. I might miss this if I get rid of it.

• What's the worst thing that would happen if I miss it?

4. If I fixed this, I'd use it.

• I stored this instead of fixing it - I probably won't ever fix it.

5. Oh, the memories!

• I could keep a photo, or a piece, or just one memento, and that would be just as good.

6. I'm going to start doing that again.

• Oh yeah?  When?

7. It's not taking up much room in that box.

• How many storage boxes belong in my life?

8. My kids could use it when they set up their own house. 

• My kids will have the same shops to choose anything they need, when they need it.  I don't need to run an amateur junk shop.

The world is stuffed

Close your eyes and imagine:

...your pile of unused stuff.
...adding the unused stuff from every house in your neighbourhood.  Now your city.  Now your country.
...all the factories producing more stuff every second.
...all the people who don't even have what they need and can't afford to buy new or buy at all.
...being a part of the solution instead of the problem.

It's easy.  Just take a deep breath, and let go.

Someone will thank you for it.  It might even be you.

Decluttering - thinking big and sewing it up

My grandmother bought the latest model sewing machine some decades ago and put it to very good use.  She loved to sew, and we still have a few of the baby clothes she sewed when we were young.

In another millennium, in another hemisphere, I am not using it at all.

No, I'm using it to hold up stuff on its way out of the house.  It's built into a quite nice solid wood table on wheels, and takes up a small table's share of room.

It's nice, potentially so useful, and sentimental as well, so I have kept it.  I do not love to sew.  It's Living the Life You Have all over again (instead of the one I wish I did).

If I want to have an occasional sewing machine, just in case, to show the kids how it's done, this is not the machine for me.  I can easily buy a compact sewing machine...

IF!

Serendipity

I did some research on TradeMe to price the machine (after the obCheck with the rest of the family), but then stalled again.  Freecycle saved the day:  "Wanted: sewing machine..."

Nice guy picked it up yesterday, and the new owner says she loves it.  Grandma Eileen would be pleased, I'm sure.

As a bonus, I also released a small stack of sewing manuals.

Dollars and sense

New sewing machine?         $1 reserve or $30 buy now on TradeMe

Old sewing machine table?  $unknown, satisfaction guaranteed

Brand new clear space?      Priceless

Yo-yo day success!

I've been quiet for longer than I meant to.  Sometimes life just gets so darned exciting that it's hard to sit down and write it all down.  But along with

1. surviving school holidays
2. editing the next issue of La Leche League New Zealand's magazine
3. attending the La Leche League New Zealand Conference (and hopefully getting the T-shirt)
4. organising the La Leche League New Zealand photo competition

 ...I have kept on minimising my life's burdens. 

Now you see it....
Today I got rid of a yo-yo before even posting about it - how good am I?

This little bouquet was a gift from DH's work when DS Alex was born.  

Hmmmm, I must have decluttered the photo, too.  Onward and upward!

It was a cunning blue arrangement of fabric flowers and rolled up baby washcloths and onesies.  I obviously  valued it because it was a true yo-yo - I can't count how many times I looked at it and then put it down again.  Until recently, I hadn't even removed all the baby items from the arrangement, and that meant that instead of using some of the onesies (like, 5 years ago when they would have fit), they are now in my gifting box!

But I have today passed the remains along to my favourite charity shop, and hopefully some crafty soul will breathe new life into it.

But wait, there's more!
I also donated the crossbars of a baby gym  - because I've lost faith that we are ever going to find the fabric part of it.  I mean, we lost a digital camera in that move, so I'm sure we could have lost a piece of fabric not much bigger than a pillowcase.   And those crossbars got used as weapons just once too often.

Objects of our affection - five relationship rules

1. What would a burglar take from your home?
2. What would you miss?

The answers to these questions may vary depending on whether you can afford good contents insurance.  But it's certainly worth considering what your emotional attachments are to the objects in your home, should they disappear due to burglary, or fire, or some other mishap.

Burglary - a case study

We've never had a houseful of interesting late-model or high-fashion goodies. (A houseful of other stuff, guilty!) When we were burgled several years ago in our previous home, they scored a mixed haul including my husband's work laptop, a knife block with an incomplete set of pretty good knives (!) but only thing they took that I cared about was my good jewelry.

One pair of earrings was a gift from my sister and the rest inherited from our grandmother, including my specially-designed (me and sis) engagement ring with vintage diamonds from her ring that I did not wear all the time...to keep it safer!

These lived in the beautiful wooden jewelry chest my husband bought me as a gift, in the bedside drawer. Beautiful, thoughtful, and for the record for any other innocents out there, obvious target for burglars. It took me a very long time to accept that the ring was really gone forever.  Now, I always wear the replacement ring, and the other good stuff I have is in a small box somewhere else that is less obvious.

Also for the record, handyman DH had our house secure: doors and windows.  The burglars forced the wooden window frames until they broke.  At a certain point, if they want to get in, they will.

Losing your stuff

Losing your stuff is actually the least of it.  Far more disturbing is that it changes your viewpoint in a number of unpleasant ways.  I have nightmares where I arrive home and see the strange disarray that means someone has invaded my home and helped themselves.  And after the burglary, I felt silly and naive for using this lovely box and thereby gifting so much so easily to the burglars.  Now I only use it as a decoy for old costume jewelry that I don't wear due to nickel sensitivity.

So neither my husband nor I wear the rings we exchanged at our wedding.  Admittedly, he lost his on our honeymoon, which must be some sort of record!

Lessons?

Should we avoid owning precious items, so they will never be taken?  That is one way of handling the problem, but it won't suit everyone.  You can miss out on some of life's real joys by rejecting attachment entirely.  So remember...

1. Enjoy what you have while you have it
2. Anything you have, you might not have tomorrow
3. Owning more precious items than you can enjoy will make your life less joyful
4. Losing a sentimental item does not mean the memories are also gone
5. People matter.  Actions matter.  Memories matter.  Places matter.  Things... looks like they are at best fifth place.

And one more rule, just for me

• It's dumb to let burglars ruin my enjoyment of a treasured gift, along with their other damage

So I'm going to start using my jewelry box again! But I'm still not ready to put it by the bedside...

Have you any other pearls of wisdom for those of us who really love our stuff?

This post was brought to you courtesy of the letter A, the number 12, and the Everyday Minimalist.

Yo-yo day again...plus an update

Today's yo-yo is another keepsake from my grandmother:

It's very wee - about the size of a man's thumb tip, so you can see the detail is lovely.  Doesn't take up much room.

The tough thing is, although beautiful and sentimental it is not particularly useful or (as far as I know) valuable.  I can't think of anything really small I want to keep in it.

I wonder if one of my nieces would enjoy it...not that either of them need more clutter!

Suggestions welcome...  Do you have a limit on the number of sentimental items you keep?


Yo-yo updates

• Potpourri jar - donated
• Dragon - repair failed and a bit too prickly for the garden so headed for happy hunting grounds
• Cup and saucers - having a go on TradeMe
• Camera #2 - still a yo-yo!

I'm making more progress than before, so I claim success, just not 100%.

Yo-yo day again!

I'm still looking for inspiration on my last yo-yo, the camera that was...

This one should be a no-brainer as I'm not into dust-collectors, but it is a little potpourri jar and I want the room to smell nice!

Perhaps someone could explain that I don't need to use a little jar to make the room smell nice?  How do you freshen your rooms in wintertime?

And in other news, I really did it!  I cut the cord on my cleaners, like I promised.  

• I planned one last session (as notice for them) but they delayed me for a new client until it was too late.  So I still have our $42, my thank you card, and my box of homemade chocolate coconut ice.  And I did my own vacuuming and wiping, and the house hasn't fallen to bits.  

That's one small step for me, and one giant leap for minimalism.

Brand new reality blog - it's Yoyo Day and YOU get to vote!

I have too many yoyos in my house.

What is a yoyo?  
This isn't like my marble collection - I bet you have yoyos in your house too.

Something catches my eye. I pick it up, turn it over in my hands, think "should I keep this?" can't really decide either way or a good way to get rid of it, and then whoops!  Down it goes.  Again.  Bingo, a yoyo!

I need your help!
Each week, on Yoyo Day, I will post a photo and history of a classic yoyo.   And you get to vote on what I should do with it.

Today's Yoyo

This is a really tough one for me.  This china was my grandmother's - it is vintage Royal Albert circa 1930 in OK condition and is probably worth something but I don't know what.  My mother shed it from her cupboards into mine and I have no china collection.  I have struggled with the choices:

1. Post pic and sell on Trademe
2. Donate and let worthy charity pick up whatever bonanza is in store
3. Keep because it is pretty and does have sentimental value

It's in your hands - vote now!