Saturday, January 29, 2011

Days 24 to 30:




2 ‘not quite so white anymore’ shirts - clothes bank
1 ‘not so waterproof anymore’ raincoat - Charity Shop
1 white singlet – unloved, Charity Shop
1 yellow singlet - unloved, Charity Shop
giraffe print shoes – still fit my feet but I’ve ‘outgrown’ them, Charity Shop
Zelda Wii game Trademe

This week was easy, we managed to go a full 7 days without buying or acquiring anything new. Starting 11 items in credit from last week we could have done nothing and remained on track. But I have begun to look more objectively at my stuff and without trying I quickly found 6 more items to go. Pete finished playing this Wii game a while ago and was happy to sell so we’re done.

7 out, 0 in, 11 credit carried forward = 11 credit.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Days 10 to 23






1 pair shoes – given to a friend who has slightly smaller feet than me.
4 bras – charity shop will take them so I am not ashamed to give
5 tops – charity again
dress - ditto
handbag – as above
trousers – and again
belt – yep charity
hair scrunchie (gold) – How long, how long have I hoarded to still be in possession of a gold scrunchie
washbag – charity
3 pairs socks – no longer in love with these , charity
sunglasses case (sans glasses) – the glasses are lost what am I doing with the case?
board game – no fun no point
file holders – bye
dead laptop battery – some how we came home from the shop with the repaired laptop and the old battery. This one goes to the recycling centre
calculator - charity
egg trays from fridge – probably the ReStore (recycling shop at the dump)
phone socket - ReStore
saucepan with wobbly handle – ReStore
jigsaw – charity
stack of old magazines – accumulated during the ‘lying on the couch’ phase of broken ankle. Instead of keeping them around for months, or longer, I’m donating to the physiotherapist waiting room.
backrest – charity shop

A total of 30 things in 13 days, whilst it may have begun to appear that we had given up after the first round of this project we have been busy.



It was a pleasure to find a new home for these Cinderella shoes. I've been keeping them for years in the hope my feet would shrink, after inheriting them from another who had loved them but whose feet disagreed. At last they are now with someone who not only loves them but can fit into them.

After such progress on the reduction of things over the last 13 days we did gain 5 new things. All vital to our survival. In addition we changed our minds about the ipod put up for adoption last week. It was dead, I replaced it with an ipod shuffle more than 12 months ago. Somehow Pete brought it back to life so I am keeping it.


30 out, 13 days, 5 new, 1 backtrack = 11 items credit!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Days 1 to 9


  • Spare PC – sold to a friend who will give it a long and happy life
  • 2x pocket radio – never used (Red Cross Shop)
  • Teapot that dribbles* (Red Cross Shop)
  • Pair of trousers (Red Cross Shop)
  • Pilates DVD – hopefully this match someone else’s NY resolution. (Red Cross Shop)
  • Manicure set – no idea where it came from but its gone now (Red Cross Shop)
  • Old, dead Ipod and case (Trademe)
  • 5 Energy efficient light bulbs, screw fitting – we only need bayonet (Trademe)
  • Atari games console. (Trademe)
  • Rainwater Diverter – didn’t fit our downpipes and sadly it was cheaper to buy a different one than to get adaptors. (Trademe)

No surprises the first week was pretty easy, some of this stuff has been lying around for months (and longer) begging to be set free.
I began the week by getting two new things so two extra had to go making the total 11. In the months to come I may regret the decision to count the 5 light bulbs as a single collection but this is the beginning and I am being brave.

I’m proud to say that everything in the list is to be re-homed, I will be visiting the Red Cross shop tomorrow during my lunch hour, I hope they won't reject anything.

The items on Trademe, NZ equivalent of eBay, will be priced to sell, although I’m a little dubious about anyone paying even 50c for my old ipod. If no-one wants to buy it at least I have most of the year to figure out how to dispose of it.

* I wouldn’t normally consider giving up a teapot but I can’t stand the dribbling ones. I would never buy a dribbling teapot, this one was inherited from friends who moved away.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Beginning

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, the only previous one that stuck long enough for me to still remember was a resolution to 'eat more chips'. I enjoyed that promise to myself particularly in January before most people had yet to abandon their diet resolutions.


For 2011 I have decided to do something.

My resolution is to end this year with less than I start with. To be more specific, 365 less things than I start with.

The plan, for every day of the year I will reduce my possessions by one item.

When I buy something new then I need to trade that for something else and everything I get rid of must be recycled or re-homed, no Landfill.


I'll keep a tally weekly but since I intend to dispose of all these items responsibly they may still be in the house. Judgement day is 31st December 2011 – everything must be gone by then to count.

I’ll try and blog weekly with progress to keep me honest.

Rules
1. 365 items less by 31 December 2011. For every item that arrives one has to go to break even.

2. Just chucking it out isn’t good enough, need to stay green so strictly NO LANDFILL

3. Disposable stuff doesn’t count, putting out the trash once a week isn’t part of this, nor is composting a banana peel. This is about reducing possessions and hoarding not the turnover of trash in our household.

4. What is one item – well a pair of shoes counts as one, not two. I could probably do all 365 in one go if I got rid of some papers. There is a sense of collections here counting as one. I am the judge and jury on this.