Once you start, change will follow

As is usual around the end of the year, I find myself pondering what I should tackle over the coming months. 

2020 has been weird. It has stalled me. And I feel like I’ve not progressed things as much I would have liked. 

Has COVID-19 made you declutter or hoard?

Remember back in February when everyone was just ticking along nicely? You could just nip to the shop and pick up something last minute that you’d forgotten – no pressure.

Then suddenly COVID-19 was looming and everyone went crazy.

Decluttering Trello

Trello is a fantastic online (which means it takes up no physical space – minimalist bonus) and free (yas!) tool used to help organise work across teams or individual to-do lists.

I’ve used it for life planning (keeping notes, bucket list ideas, plans), managing my personal blogs (scheduling, post ideas) and also in my professional life (managing workload, planning an editorial blog calendar across multiple team members).

It can be great, but you’ve got to use it or you get out of practice.

Still not conquered the book mountain?

It’s been a while since I tackled my book shelves. Those of you with OCD might want to look away now. Hell, even I might want to avert my eyes.

I am ashamed by the state of my books – these are old books, they are meant to be cherished, these are new books, waiting to be read. And look what I did…

Reducing Facebook noise: one step ahead of Mark Zuckerberg

I’d say I’m a pretty active user of Facebook. I admit to accessing it far too much. It’s always there open in a tab on my laptop or pushing notifications to me via the app on my phone.

I hit a point over my New Year break where I was scrolling through updates from local cafes, events I wasn’t even going to, organisations I’d liked to get free Wi-Fi, places I’d followed because I was visiting the town or country. Then I realised I didn’t need to see this shit.

Pocket-sized plastic bags

Do you ever find yourself picking up some shopping that you hadn’t planned for? Then you have to fork out for a 5 pence plastic bag? One, I may add that lasts as far as the car before collapsing. Or if it does last – you find you add to an ever increasing pile of plastic…

This post covers a great tip brought to you by my Mama J to save you from this situation!

Top 5 ways to tackle your decluttering

I wanted to share with you my top 5 tips for decluttering. These are the methods that have stuck with me during my minimalist journey.

I do a lot of these without even thinking about it now.

Clothing declutter: why is it so hard to part with those jeans?

I’ll hold my hands up, I own jeans in every size from a size 6 to a size 20. And at some point in my life, all of these jean have fit me. At the moment, I’m around the 16 mark (verging on a 14 – hopefully soon!).

If I’m honest, I haven’t been anywhere near the 6-12s in the last 10 years. I hit my target weight with Scottish Slimmers on 31 August 2004 (in my size 6s). I’ve eaten my way steadily back up through all the sizes and well beyond my original ‘fat weight’.

You’d think, at some point in those 10 years, especially when I did some major decluttering in 2014, that the skinny jeans should have been thrown out.

Shrinking Linda does not Equal Shrinking Wardrobe

I’ve been on another declutter mission. I finally gave myself a good talking to and decided to get rid of clothes that don’t fit me.

Just in (lost) case declutter

Those who know me, know my holiday pre-planning/packing list is legendary.

I don’t write a new one for every holiday, that wastes time. I have one ready, typed up in Word, pre-filled with all your holiday ‘must-haves’. That said, one size doesn’t fit all – there’s not much of a need for a snorkel in Tennessee – so there are amends for every trip.

At least I know that all the essentials are there – of course, all this is a bit of a moot point when your case doesn’t show up.