I am using a Hobonichi Weeks inside my Van Der Spek Undyed Janet Leather Codex cover to motivate and schedule things for my big declutter project.

Carrying out big projects can be intimidating and lead to procrastination. I tend to concentrate on carrying out one small task at a time until it becomes a habit to do something for the project every day. On days when motivation is low, doing one small thing from your list and being able to tick it off really makes you feel you have achieved something.

The ways I use to sell and donate items are

  • Kaplans - a local accessory and jewellery auction house for higher end items
  • Judits - a consignment shop that takes silver or unusual jewellery and on-trend clothing
  • Sellpy - a resale site that takes anything that can sell for more than $5. They collect, photograph, list, ship everything for a cost of $1 per item and between 30% and 60% of what it sells for. I used to do the work myself but I got so sick of annoying people wanting me to pay them for collecting free items and trying to haggle down already low prices. Sellpy can also collect and donate items to charity for you.
  • Thisbugslife.com - I sell quite a bit through private enquiries from my blog.
  • I drop off items at close-by charity shops. My favourite is the Stockholm City Mission.
  • Old towels and sheets go to the animal shelter for birthing
  • Anything can cannot be sold or donated goes to the garbage sorting centre in our building. Our food waste is incinerated to provide heating and hot water to the community. Anything else is sorted into different categories and goes into two rooms in our building for weekly collection (electronics, appliances, plastics, metals, glass, paper, cardboard, batteries, clothing).

I try to do one of the above every single day. It soon makes a big mountain a smaller mountain!

I have been using it for about six weeks now and there is a tiny bit of darkening, but not as much as I would expect. Having said that though, I have not taken it out much, because I am working so hard to carry less due to shoulder problems. I still work at home most of the time so I keep it on my desk. It is, however quite portable and not too heavy.

I work around gaps in my teaching schedule (which is in a separate ring organiser), to plan drop off/collect/list/post items I am selling or donating. These I plan ahead in the weekly calendar. On the plain grid page on the right I have lists of things that I have to get done that week. I use writing boards to keep my place (they have a very nice Today tab on each writing board) and also to prevent my pencil from going right through the paper. I am a leftie (we press hard) and use a sharp, hard lead (2H) so writing boards are a must with thin paper.

I had planned on starting this list on 1 April but ended up starting it on the 7 March instead. It is a list of every product I finish. I try for a one-in-one-out process. Following on from this small idea is a plan I was going to try on my blog - to go through all my empty products for each month and give them reviews in case someone was on the fence about trying it, or just wanted to hear something about that before they buy

This is a list of income from sales. This money goes into a special savings account, and I use it to buy new things. Some money comes in immediately, other money only comes in once items have been auctioned or sold.