Clothes Diet: Jewelry

I am currently in the the third month of my 2013 clothes buying diet and I'm in the process of documenting the items of clothing and jewelry that are getting me through this year. I will be writing a small ebook about my year of not buying clothes, but throughout the year I will be writing a few posts on the actual process. A couple Saturdays ago, I decided to go through my jewelry box and document what I actually have. I don't have a lot of jewelry and most of it has been given to me or I've purchased items from places I've visited around the world, but it's a good, small place to start.

 

I purchased this necklace at Target for a holiday party. It's cool, but I don't know if I will keep it.

 

This is one of my favorite necklaces. It's a beautiful amber teardrop from Copenhagen.

 

I made this necklace from some turquoise and jasper beads.

 

My earrings and rings sit in a small pottery bowl from the Oregon Coast.

 

My typical, every day earrings.

 

More "business-y" earrings.

 

Some more amber from Denmark.

 

An asymmetrical ring from Denmark.

 

The left ring was made in Thailand and I got the wood ring on Easter Island.

 

My watches: a waterproof New Balance watch for traveling and a Skagen watch.

 

The necklace is a rain tree seed that I picked up in Fiji and the wood bracelet is from a local vintage shop.

 

Another vintage shop necklace.

 

A necklace from Denmark with a Viking ship and a fish on an old coin.

 

A few bracelets given to me by friends.

 

My name in Viking runes and a few shells I've picked up from various tropical islands.

 

A shell necklace I picked up on Easter Island.

 

The top earrings were a gift from my mother and the bottom earrings I purchased from New Tribe Textiles on Etsy.

 

A set of  three beaded necklaces I received as a gift at Burning Man 2012.

Decluttering the Pantry in 30 Minutes

We have a small pantry in a hallway that holds canned food, bottles, jars and a few bread mixes. It's a little annoying that we always have to crouch down to find anything in the pantry, but it's even more annoying when the pantry is a mess like it has been for the past few years.

Before decluttering

During decluttering

After decluttering

I took 30 minutes one weekend to go through the entire pantry, get rid of a few items, give some food away and even make lunch that day with a few items. Now it's clean and organized by type of food and how often we need an item.

Now what do I do with canned Malaysian rambutan fruit?

Tool Shed Decluttering

We have a small pump house/tool shed in our yard that has a tendency to become a catchall for all our summer projects and items. I decided this fall to clean it from top to bottom and re-organize all the tools and equipment in it. The larger items, like the lawn mower and edger seemed to take up most of the space, but once I found room for everything else, those two items fit in just fine. The key was to utilize the wall space as much as possible with tool racks, a shelf for our above ground pool items and strong hooks for the edger. An old kitchen cabinet works great for smaller tools and items.

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

 

 

 

 

Decluttering Under the Stairs Storage

In my mother's house is a strange, but rather large cabinet under the stairs. For years it has been neglected and random items like Halloween decorations, Christmas wrapping paper and art projects have been relegated to this dark hole. It's also been the place where my husband likes to store his various beers. There was never any shelving built in the space, so over time it has become cluttered and items are just piled on top of each other. With the holidays coming up, I thought last weekend would be a good time to clean out and organize the cabinet. That meant putting on knee pads and climbing into the dark, cobwebby space. Fun.

I purchased a few plastic shelving packages from Home Depot and began to clean and toss out what was not being used. You can see below what the space used to look like. Don't ask what was going to be done with that huge gourd in the corner.

Below you can see what the space looked like after I tackled it. Since I got rid of so much junk and old boxes, I did not have to utilize the space in the very back of the cabinet. In addition, it only took me about one hour to clean out the space and reorganize it. My cabinet under the stairs project is a good example of what can be accomplished in an afternoon with only about $60 worth of shelving and some knee pads.

 

 Photos by Christina Nellemann

Declutter your brain with one word

One word.

At the beginning of my yoga class, the instructor asks each of us to think of one word to keep in our mind, repeat and listen to throughout each practice. Several of my past words have been:

Balance.

Accept.

Inhabit.

Chocolate.

The idea of focusing on one word for a period of time has been profound for me. In daily life, so many other words run rampant through my brain: email check drive keys door lock credit keyboard ATM iPod headphones phone check meeting deadline call mistake...

Being able to focus, if just for an hour, on one simple word has allowed me to declutter my mind and re-balance in order to face another onslaught of daily words.

Photo by Per Ola Wiberg

Phasing Out of Facebook

Facebook is on the brink of one of the largest IPO's in history. No one really knows what this will do for the millions of Facebook users and businesses, but we do know that it will make a few people very, very wealthy. Even with all the IPO hubbub, what if you decide you are tired of being part of the largest social media network in the world? How about dumping Facebook for good?

Many users of Facebook have shown their displeasure about the social media network's privacy issues, and according to a PCMag.com poll over 50 percent of Facebook users have considered moving over to Google+ instead.

If you are having a difficult time removing yourself from the most popular social network ever created, then do it in phases. Each phase will help any Facebook addict to slowly quit the pull of status posts, Farmville and the Timeline.

Phase #1

Cut down Facebook time to once or twice a week instead of daily. In addition to this, don't stay logged into Facebook all day. It makes it too tempting to just stop what you're doing and get lost in Facebook-land.

Stop putting your entire life on Facebook. Only post your status once or twice a week and don't let everyone know everything you are doing or every place you are going. 

Stop liking things on Facebook. Don't use your finger or your mouse to vote on what you "Like"; not even for that free pack of gum or entry into a movie ticket contest.


Phase #2

Lurk instead of Like. You can still lurk around Facebook and view other friends' comments, photos, videos, etc., but don't post any status updates or click on any "Like" buttons.

Tell them you are outta here. Contact your closest friends on FB and tell them you are slowly phasing out and give them your Google+ information, Twitter account or email address.

Move your photos over to Google+. The blog, nicomachus.net, has a nice guide on how to move your accumulation of photos from Facebook to Google+.

Phase #3

Delete your account. If this makes you nervous, you can reactivate your Facebook account after 14 days of deleting it. If after 14 days, you are having withdrawals, you can always go back.

End of Year Decluttering

Another year is about to end, and leaving with it should be the detritus that tends to gather over the months. The end of the year is a great time to clean up your email, clean up that cluttered computer desktop and maybe even dump a few friends on Facebook. Even though this cleaning session is only for electronic clutter, the mass of information can weigh heavily on your psyche.

Here are the three things that I will be doing to welcome 2012 with a fresh outlook:

1. Clean up email inboxes

Why does it seem like at the end of each year I get the dreaded "Your inbox is nearly full" message? Oh yes, I've been just keeping everything (and their attachments) in my inbox. I will be dumping both received and sent messages that are over 8 months old and I will be saving some messages and their attachments in a Dropbox account or in a file that is related to the project. I also remove emails that are rated as "Enormous".

I will be doing this with both my work and personal email accounts. Remember to also clean out any email accounts that you use primarily for forwarding purposes and to dump the Trash for each account.


2. Organize projects

Do a full backup of all your 2011 projects. Then do a backup of your backup. I have three systems of backups: an off-site server, an external hard drive and on DVD. The server and external drive are for more current projects, while the DVD is usually for projects that are three or more months old. Getting old projects out of your sight will enable you to concentrate more on the current projects.


3. Clean up Facebook

Facebook is used for everything now including logging onto other sites, posting comments and creating accounts. The end of the year is a good time to remove yourself from groups you are no longer interested in, to dump old (and potentially embarrassing) photos, remove apps that have access to your account, and remove old messages.

Take a good look at your "friends". Can some of them quietly disappear? If you are not interested in being friends with random people, then click on the Friends area of your account, click their checked Friends box and scroll down to Unfriend. It's painless.

Now, to remedy removing a few of your friends, take some time to catch up with your true friends on Facebook. Send a note to someone you have been meaning to say hello to for a while and maybe plan an off-Facebook meet-up.

Photo courtesy of Muffet/Flickr

Decluttering (Not) Your Office

Do you work in a typical cubicle environment where your gray cube or office is spic and span? What about that empty cube across the hall? You know the one: the employee was laid off or left two years ago and it has become either a storage space or has masses of scattered files that date back to 2003. In your decluttered life, doesn't that cube give you itchy fingers? Don't you just want to tackle that space and make it gray and shiny once again?

This is a rocky position to be in. Your supervisor and other employees could be the types to support your efforts, or they could see you as a busybody that has no business straightening up an area that's not yours. What's the best way to go about it?

1. It helps if you have some seniority. I'm in this position right now where a few offices and cubes down the hall from me are bursting at the seams with remnants of old conferences, un-filed files, awards that were never given to their recipients and employees' children's toys.

As the senior employee, I am using this stance to say "This stuff from 10 years ago was supposed to be filed away, but wasn't. I'll take care of it." I then proceed to use the circular file religiously.

2. Tell instead of ask. I initially asked in a roundabout way if the work was ever going to get done. Nothing came of that. So before even tossing a paperclip, I took some meeting time to mention that I was just taking a few mornings (I come in early) to straighten a few cubicles up. That was received more positively.

3. Announce that it would make the department look a little more professional. We have a new employee coming in soon and I don't want us to look like slobs...except I don't say it like that.

4. Make use of the company's locked recycle bins and shredders. Have a large recycle bin available nearby and make sure the cleaning crew will be emptying out it and the garbage cans each night. 

5. Create a "To Be Filed" box. Don't throw away or recycle everything. That could cause some issues with people who are addicted to printing and filing everything. Items that you are not sure of should go in this box with a dated sticky note on top. Give this filing job to an intern.

6. Show off your work. Once everything is clean and organized, decorate with a small plant or some art and show off your hard work. Tell everyone where they can find things that have been filed and accept some recommendations. The plant or artwork will hopefully deter the department from filling up the cubicle again with office detritus.

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Beall/Flickr