It’s basically too late for me to mention this (many items are already out of stock), but Target is doing a collaboration with John Derian again, for Thanksgiving. I bought two things:
This lil serving tray, which does not look exactly like my house but has the vibe of my house:
(image from Target.com)
and this wine tote:
(image from Target.com)
I find as I get older that I have more and more need of cute wine totes to give with wine gifts. A friend of mine had a birthday party this past month, and everyone was teasing her for the number of bottles of wine/liquor she was receiving (“Oh, they sure know you I guess har har!!”)—but it’s more that when someone is My Age, there are fewer and fewer toasters and throw blankets you can buy them, and the focus turns to consumable treats. And wine/liquor KEEP well if you don’t want to use them right away, and it’s not a problem if you get DUPLICATES, and they are easy to REGIFT and/or serve to guests.
I do not need any more Christmas tree ornaments, I DO NOT need any, I already have them divided into two bins to use on alternating years. But:
(image from Target.com)
A PASSPORT ORNAMENT! So perfect to commemorate our first trip out of the country!
I am trying a new thing, by which I mean something I do from time to time and then forget about and then start doing again: I am trying the concept of Getting Rid of Things, Even if it Is Just One Thing and Doesn’t Seem Worth it. Tossing one single worn hair towel, even though I still have too many and should really go through them more thoroughly so that I can close that drawer, is still worth doing. Putting one single necklace in the Goodwill bag, even though I still have too many and should really go through my entire jewelry box, is still worth doing. Taking one window fan we never use out of the barn, even though really I should go through the entire barn and get rid of everything we moved five years ago and haven’t unpacked/used yet, is still worth doing.
The main thing I notice with this method is that it inspires me to do more of it. YES, it would be more efficient to thoroughly tackle an entire cluttered/disorganized drawer, but it’s not more efficient if I NEVER DO IT. If I notice and throw away one item from that drawer while I have it open for other reasons, that is something that doesn’t have to be a Big Involved Project. And then maybe the next time I open that drawer, I see another item I can throw away. And maybe now I can see to the back of the drawer and I say “WHY do we still have twenty packets of assorted orthodontic elastics when no one at our house wears braces anymore??” and I throw out a nice big handful. This is the kind of small success I find encouraging, and sometimes it’s so motivating it TURNS INTO thoroughly tackling the entire drawer.
A Big Involved Project I think really has to be done in one swoop is my make-up. I don’t even WEAR make-up anymore, but I have a large box of it, and I DO want to keep SOME of it for those few occasions I DO want to wear make-up. But the other night, Paul and I were going out to dinner and I put on some make-up, and it looked ridiculous and I wiped most of it off. So maybe I should just throw out the whole box and be done with it. Well, but then I know someday I will REALLY WANT my perfect brown-red lipstick or whatever, and then I will feel sad. (I have heard the “THROW OUT MAKE-UP AFTER SIX MONTHS, IT IS CONTAMINATED!!” thing, and I do not believe or comply. I will reconsider my stance if I ever experience one single ill effect from using old make-up.)
You don’t have too many ornaments, you have too few trees. You need a tree for the corner of your bedroom and one for your Swistle sitting room and another one tucked into another little spot.
I will join you in throwing away makeup if I ever experience a single ill effect. I still have some from college and it’s FINE. I wear it for weddings and school carnivals and that is it.
I approve of this approach. MORE TREES!
I know this is not the calendar post, but I wanted to share a calendar I loved so much this year that I reordered it for 2024, which has never happened. I don’t LOVElove the cover image of 2024, so please see the individual months. (It’s the Niquead Wonderful World calendar in case the link doesn’t work.) For your consideration: https://www.amazon.com/NIQUEA-D-Wonderful-World-Spiral-Calendar/dp/B0CHSH1VPX
Is BEAUTIFUL!
That’s a nice one! And speaking of John Derian, I have his 2023 calendar and would recommend for 2024.
It’s so pretty! For the past three years I’ve gotten the Feathered Friends calendar but that one is a strong contender as a replacement!
I am bummed that our house still has a ton of clutter despite my efforts to purge, but occasionally I will get a reminder of something I got rid of (picture of kids standing on front porch that has an old window AC unit waiting for pickup), and I realize that things may not be good now, but they would be very much worse if I hadn’t gotten rid of anything. So yay, us! Our efforts are better than nothing!
You can all shut up about my bottle of eucalyptus baby bath and the fact that my youngest is in college. It could be worse.
Pick out the lipstick you love, and the mascara, and the eyeliner, and throw out all the rest. Out out out.
(Have I done this? Kind of. Not enough)
Yes to your entire final parenthetical.
The passport ornament really is too darling to pass up. Maybe an ornament will break this year, and you will be happy to have this one to take its place. I recognize that this comment is not in the spirit of the post, and I’m sorry. But.
Regarding: makeup I have light foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara, and two lipsticks and that’s it. About once a year I’ll watch a 5 minute light makeup tutorial on YouTube so I make sure I look in style. I keep it all in a makeup bag so it stays contained in the drawer. Sometimes wiping most of the makeup off leaves you with the perfect amount of makeup.
This has served me so well. I call this my “within reach” approach to cleaning or decluttering. As I come across things or while I am waiting for coffee to brew, waiting for the shower water to heat up, stovetop water to boil, etc., I try to consciously SEE the items around me and decide, right at that moment, “keep, trash, giveaway.” I encourage myself to throw/give away by reminding myself that I can always hunt for, stalk, and find a replacement (which is sometimes a delightful process) if I REALLY want to. Cost is only considered as a give away/trash deterrent if it’s more expensive than a cut/color or a nice restaurant dinner. I do not need to quibble with myself over a $12 kitchen gadget that takes up too much room in the cabinet. If I want to keep something, I either put it away or take a quick swipe with a dust rag (if necessary).
Some advice that no one asked for that is EXTREMELY community dependent. I joined my hyperlocal Buy Nothing Group on Facebook and as a requirement for membership you have to give something away once a month. So on a Sunday I’ll get up and find something (old speakers, an old tray, some legos, etc) snap a picture and post it. Within an hour or so someone has commented they want it, I message them my address and then they swing by and grab it. It works SO well! Probably due to very thorough moderation of our group, but it works really well in my neighborhood. I love it.
My buy nothing group doesn’t have that rule but I love the motivation! And my own Buy Nothing group is also awesome
I visit my Buy Nothing group partly because there are often members that are looking for something I have but hadn’t thought of offering yet, so then I get to feel virtuous and de-clutter-y without really having to make any keep/toss decisions.
I’ve been applying your just-one-thing method to cleaning. Today I cleaned bathroom mirrors which took just a few minutes. This is so much more productive and satisfying than waiting for some calendar day to clean all the bathrooms. Now I want to apply just-one-thing to decluttering. Thank you for being an inspiration.
MY TARGET HAS THE THANKSGIVING THINGS IN STOCK!
Even though the website says they are NOT in stock. Usually it says “in store only” for low stock items but I was walking to check out clearance halloween and all the Thanksgiving things were there, AND they were 70% off just like some of the halloween things!
AND when I did the price check kiosk, it told me what other nearby locations also had the items in stock!
!!!!!
I still have a tube of My Favorite Lipstick Ever that I bought at a store that went out of business before y2k. I can’t actually wear it anymore because it is too purple for me now (makes me look bruised and my teeth extra yellow, a sexy combo!) but I can’t throw it away yet. That tube represents the 90s to me in some weird way. I did throw out a bunch of Sister Lipsticks I bought in the same going-out-of-business haul that didn’t magically acquire the power of time travel. Baby steps!
When you say the tray “does not look exactly like my house” I am going out on a limb and assuming that your house lacks a giant roof turkey…? Or maybe it’s something else. No judgement.
I’m glad I’m not the only one wondering about the giant roof turkey.
This method is sure-fire for me. Ninety percent of the time, if I throw out that one thing in the drawer, I will end up cleaning up that entire drawer.
I’m also with you on the makeup front…to an extent. I was wearing some eyeshadow not too long ago that I’ve had for YEARS (I use very little of it in place of eyeliner) and my eyes would not stop watering for anything. At first, I thought it was allergies but meds didn’t help. Finally, I ditched the eyeshadow and bought a replacement; my eyes haven’t watered since. So now, when it comes to eye makeup, I’m a little more inclined to toss it if it has been a while since I bought it.
I wear a ton of makeup every single day and yet somehow I had a powder blush that lasted eight years. Even after daily wear! And it did not kill me.
Moving was great for me to get rid of so much shit, and some of that shit was…assorted orthodontic elastics!
YOU NEED THAT PASSPORT ORNAMENT. Also, what a good system to alternate them year to year, as opposed to our free-for-all which empties a bunch of boxes not all the way every year. I also like the ‘too few trees’ comment.
I love the ‘get rid of one thing’. I just get weirdly squeamish about throwing stuff out, and think I must find some way that someone else could get use out of it – which probably means I donate it to some place that throws it out for me, which is… not ideal.
I’m not a makeup wearer in general, but when I do wear makeup it’s mascara (I’m very pale and so are my eyelashes), a bit of eyeliner and a tinted chapstick. And then I keep and absolutely never use eye shadow, a few lipsticks, and a really really excellent concealer.
I like the idea of getting rid of ONE thing! I’ve discovered that having a place for the things to go is key, especially if they are ‘easy’ and don’t require too much extra work. I hate things to go to the landfill if they are still useful. This is a struggle in a household where there are children who acquire lots of things and a unnamed person, who is an overbuyer. The Facebook Buy Nothing group in my area has been great for getting rid of household items. I post something as available and often someone will pick it up off my porch in a day or so.
John Derian is ringing up 90% off at Target starting this morning. Also Halloween decor/costumes is 90% (not candy).
The only makeup I throw out (except for the kind that is clearly dried up or clumpy or contaminated with something) is mascara, which is a moist breeding ground for things that get scrubbed off the lashes by the wand. I have noticed a yeasty smell to it after awhile and yes, I have gotten an eye infection from it once.
We get an ornament on every big family trip and over the years we’ve replaced most of our cheap generic ornaments this way. It’s nice because we reminisce every year as we decorate the tree.
My mother keeps her/our ornaments separated into five boxes which rotate every year. So at Christmas this year, we’ll be putting up ornaments that we haven’t seen since 2018- it’s the perfect amount of time to have both ‘OH, I remember this one!” and “I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen this ornament before in my life” included. I’ve been slowly working on getting rid of my generics and only saving the ones that have actual meaning to me. I’m not at ‘having to rotate’ capacity yet, but I’m getting there!
I love ornaments so much and every single one I own is sentimental. I would love to have multiple trees some day. Right now our tree gets set up on wood floor in the dining room and I have very young and grabby nieces, so my ornaments are separated into fragile/very breakable and more durable. I am going to be so pleased in a couple years to see all my delicate ornaments again.
I have not worn makeup in years and finally tossed all of it last year.
I am getting much better about the getting rid of item by item (I keep a box for donate at all times so it is so easy to drop one or two things in when I come across them instead of just thinking, oh I should get rid of this next time I clean out the whole drawer) My bigger struggle is to stop acquiring excess – the hair towel comment made me laugh because I was JUST on target’s website to see what wondershop patterns there were this year. I have 3 festive winter hair wraps. Not only would another one be unnecessary spend, but would actually be a burden to fit in the drawer. I closed the browser and congratulated myself, but still kind of sad.
I decided a few years (actually maybe a decade?) ago that I am a person who does not wear make-up, and I highly recommend it. The balance for me between feeling happy and satisfied that I looked glamorous and put together vs. clownish and slightly off was never good, and now I just don’t consider it as an option. Even for weddings. Every once in a while it occurs to me when I feel like other people are looking better than me in pictures that maybe they are wearing make-up, but it still doesn’t make me want to. My face is my face and that’s just going to have to be good enough.
(Maybe this is what being male feels like?)
Is any of the stuff you want to declutter good enough for Facebook marketplace or similar?
I would set yourself a little target: sell $50 or $100 worth of (to you) junk. Then throw out your make up and buy fresh, nice makeup up with your decluttering guilt-free reward fund, the kind you would look forward to using when you feel in the mood. I am also not strict about throwing old things out but I have discovered the hard way that old eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner is…. Not the one.