Subtraction Project

One of my friends on Dotti's mentioned Subtraction Project when we were discussion the de-cluttering process.  Some ladies like to follow Fly Lady, but they felt the emails were overwhelming.  Another person suggested another group to follow, but a credit card was needed for a monthly subscription charge.  Finally one friend mentioned the Subtraction Project, another one tried it and recommended it, so I decided to give it a whirl also.

Daily emails are popping into my Yahoo mailbox.  So far, I like several things.  One is the tone of the writer.  Cass McCrory is very conversational, and it feels like she is writing to a group of friends in her notes.  Plus she gives practical examples and reasons why this particular area might be a problem..

Second - her tip is something that can be done quickly without too much time or effort spent.  It isn't something that has to be planned or a block of time set aside to do the task.  

Third - the tasks are such that even though they seem small, there is a sense of accomplishment when they are completed.

Finally - I feel really great about this because many of her suggestions, so far, are ones that I have already completed and have done so for the same reasons.  At least I feel like I have been doing something right in the de-cluttering process.

You see, in the space of time between Halloween and Thanksgiving, I spent a lot of time de-cluttering and cleaning out things in the house.  At times Gary would give me a look which seemed to question why I was doing these things at the time I was doing them.  Later when Thanksgiving rolled around, I was ready and had more room for other items, such as food in the fridge, or I could easily find the Thanksgiving plates and napkins in the drawer of the hutch instead of having them hanging in the Hobby Lobby bag on the door handle in the back room.  I felt much better, and it turns out, as I said before, I was doing something right in this process!

The daily tips so far:

Day 12 - cleaning out the candles, such as birthday candles that have been partially burned and won't be used again, bigger candles that have been started and didn't smell that great, 'nice' candles that are being kept 'for good'

**I cleaned out all of those birthday type candles in the hutch in November and went through a bunch of other candles on the shelves in the living room when I cleaned them off in November also.  Some of them went to Goodwill. Some are being burned now.  I also consolidated the waxes for the Scentsy burner and made a note to switch them out every few weeks.

Day 11 - Pots and Pans  This includes old muffin pans, cookies sheets, and other items like that.

**I cleaned out these a few months ago too. What I haven't done is get rid of some of the extra skillets we have, especially those with marred coatings.  We won't use them, so why keep them?

Day 10 - Under the Sink - cleaning out the cleaners and condensing bottles of similar items plus pitching containers that have very little left in them

* I don't do the under the kitchen sink, but I have gone through the under the bathroom sink area and sorted through items there.  Now I need to go through the other cabinets in the bathroom and pitch outdated over the counter meds and get rid of bottles which contain just a little bit of lotion and those types of things.

Day 9 - Cookbooks  - now some people collect cookbooks, and it is true that I have several that are good collections and have great recipes.  But I also have many that are just repetitive or have no real recipes that I can use.  Why is it that some recipes require ingredients that either can't be found in any of the stores I shop in? What about those that need only 1 teaspoon of the ingredient which only comes in a huge bottle and is expensive and that I will not use again for anything?  Those books need to be pitched.

*This was another thing I did in November. When I cleaned off the shelves in the living room, the Amish cabinet in the kitchen and Ann's wash stand, many of the cookbooks that I never ever used went into the Goodwill bag.  Another suggestion from this project was to donate them to libraries, which would be a great idea.  I need to investigate that.  And side note, much as I like family recipes and cookbooks and recipe boxes, Pinterest has a great online way to save recipes that doesn't take up any space!

Day 8 - Refrigerator Doors - cleaning out the bottles of salad dressings, juices, and other things that are stuck there.

* Once again, this is something we did when we were prepping for Thanksgiving.  Everything came out of the fridge, all the shelves were cleaning, lots of items were pitched. 

I felt very good, and quite accomplished, as I have been reading through these.  As I said, there is a feeling of success when the task is completed, and little by little, the de-cluttering task is happening.  It isn't overwhelming.  It just works!  And if there is no time on a particular day to complete the task, one can return to it another time.

Great set of emails! If you need help with this process, I highly recommended signing up!