little white truths

Yesterday I didn't have any work on that couldn't wait until next week, and since I had both kids off my hands for a few hours and not much energy, this inspired me to go through both my email inboxes and delete anything I didn't need or archive things I might need to refer to later.

Cleaning out my inboxes is something I've meant to do for years (indeed, I was deleting emails from the beginning of 2017), but I'd kept putting it off so I had almost 500 emails in each inbox and I needed to weed things down.

I have now, and there are only 40 items or so left in each. It's a huge improvement and it got me thinking about what other areas of my life I've needed to 'de-weed' for ages - so that's what this post is about.

Hopefully the below list will strike a chord with some and will contain at least some items that others can relate to. I'm also hoping to motivate myself into doing these things, and if I make myself accountable by writing them down, I can check back early in 2020 and see what I've achieved from my list.

Go through my countless scarves

I've loved scarves for years and rarely go without wearing one, and I tend to buy a lot too. Perhaps not anymore because my collection is saturated, but back in the day, I used to buy a lot from op shops and that's where most of mine have come from.

And since I don't have the time to visit op shops when I feel like it anymore (one of the curses of having young children ; )), I've only bought five this year and that's insanely good for me.

I bought two yesterday on clearance (they were $7.50 each) and it reminded me that I need to go through the ones I own and remove whatever I'm not using or whatever's too old and too worn to be kept.

What I then do is donate the ones I don't need back to an op shop, so I have a more edited collection to face and don't lose any in the madness. I'm hoping to do this next Tuesday because it's something I can do while both kids are here all day. We'll see.

Go through my reams of cosmetic bags

I can't be the only person who has somehow wound up with countless cosmetic bags. These often come as GWPs and contain gifts, and I've received a few from others too. I've also wound up with some when I've bought eg a body care kit, and many are relics of the days when I used to subscribe to beauty boxes. But I have too many, and I need to pare things down.

While many have been sent to my kids' rooms to be used to store things like toys that are part of a set or dolls' clothes, many of them aren't in use because the toys are all over the place and I need to go through everything and work out which of the bags can be used for storage (like the puzzle pieces that are currently all over the place), and which ones can just be donated.

So my aim will be to go through my bags and the bags I've given my kids, ask them which ones they want and which ones we can donate, and pare things down from there. It's a big job but it needs to be done.

Remove toys and clothes from my kids' rooms before Christmas

I do this every year around September, to see what spring/summer clothes don't fit them anymore and also to see whether they own any toys they've grown out of. 

While I haven't attacked the toys yet and need to, I did go through their clothes a couple of months ago - only to find that they both had growth spurts a few weeks later so I need to do it again.

This task is actually on my list today, while both kids are in care this morning. I find it's better to do it when they're not here because otherwise they won't want to part with the things I'm removing, even if I'm removing something like old baby rattles that they would never use and don't even realise they still own.

Wish me luck! Not a fun task, but it has to be done.

Donate paper and boxes

For the last decade I've been more likely to order things online (especially after having children), which means I've ended up with a variety of paper stuffing and cardboard boxes. Add that to all the subscription boxes I've received in years past (which typically came in both inner and outer box-packaging), and you have a flood of packaging - all of which I've kept to be reused.

And while a tonne of it has been reused and re-purposed (eg it's great for storing things), I still have too much of it and need to do something about the mess of box overload and stuffing spilling out of the small area I've been keeping it in. 

In particular I need to do something with the brown paper stuffing, and although my kids have painted a lot of that with old eyeshadows (we then use that to wrap presents), I need to pare down what's there and I reckon my best bet is to send it to kinder, where they often ask for things like that to be used in craft activities. It's on the list.

Deal with the filing cabinet

I swear this has been on my list of things to do before, and while I did get partway through it at the beginning of the year, I suddenly got busy with work - and when that happens, it's only the daily washing, cooking, cleaning and gardening that gets done - the extras like this tend to fall to the wayside.

So my old filing cabinet was sent back to me from my parents' house at the beginning of the year because they didn't need it (it was empty), which meant I could start sending my files into that (I'd previously been keeping them in a tower of baskets). 

I started the process at the beginning of the year, which included consolidating some of my husband's documents into my own files and also throwing anything out that was over seven years old and didn't need to be kept, but life of course got in the way and that job was stopped in its tracks. It's time to finish it, now and for all. If I can do it by Christmas, I'll be thrilled.

Finalise the Christmas shopping

While I've already bought Christmas and birthday presents for friends and family that will see me through to the middle of next year, and I've also bought the kids presents from us, we're yet to make the yearly trek to the op shop so we've got that down for the end of October when the kids are staying with my parents, and I'm looking forward to crossing that off the list.

What I also need to source is some stockings. Mum has stockings for the kids at the grandparents' house and she stuffs those with goodies each year, so up until now we've just done the sacks at our joint on Christmas Day. 

But the kids are getting older now so I would like to do stockings too, which means I need to find some stockings and also work out what to put in them (probably muesli bars, which are just as exciting to my children as chocolate and lollies), so no need to overload them with junk if they're not expecting it! I'm looking forward to doing this one : )

In sum

That's all from me. While resolutions posts can be boring, hopefully there were at least a couple of things in here that sparked ideas about what others want to get sorted before the new year.

What I plan to do is check back in once January hits so we can see what I've managed to achieve and what I'm still working on. Wish me luck!

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com