Welcome to this, the first in a series of introductions to the blogs that I read on a daily basis. I say daily, but what I really mean is whenever they make a post - I use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs that I like and check it out whenever I sit down for a minute with a nice cuppa (so that's pretty often...).
First up - Unclutterer. I am by nature a pack-rat extraordinaire. I love - or even live - to hoard. I am incapable of throwing anything away, either because "you never know when it might come in handy" or because throwing something that is not broken away is just too wasteful. I know where the former comes from (my family are pack-rats too), but I'm not sure about the latter.
My husband will no doubt attest to how annoying this is to put up with. When I moved to Finland I drove him mad by sorting and resorting of all my wordly possessions (he would substitute "crap" for "possessions") into different piles, to give to friends, recycle, sell on ebay etc etc. I stand by my "piling system", but I admit that it doesn't often do much to reduce the overall number of possessions that I own (and have thus dragged over here).
However, I think I have found the cure in Unclutterer. I have now made the first step by designating a Charity Box in which to place items that we do not want or need, which we take down to the nearest charity shop when it's full.
For some easy, beginner-unclutterer tips, try 10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutes.
(For a more extreme uncluttering tale, have a read of the book, Bonfire Of The Brands: How I Learnt to Live Without Labels
by Neil Boorman. Not strictly an uncluttering guide, but a very interesting book by a guy who decided to rid himself of all branded goods, which he then burned in a huge bonfire.)
First up - Unclutterer. I am by nature a pack-rat extraordinaire. I love - or even live - to hoard. I am incapable of throwing anything away, either because "you never know when it might come in handy" or because throwing something that is not broken away is just too wasteful. I know where the former comes from (my family are pack-rats too), but I'm not sure about the latter.
My husband will no doubt attest to how annoying this is to put up with. When I moved to Finland I drove him mad by sorting and resorting of all my wordly possessions (he would substitute "crap" for "possessions") into different piles, to give to friends, recycle, sell on ebay etc etc. I stand by my "piling system", but I admit that it doesn't often do much to reduce the overall number of possessions that I own (and have thus dragged over here).
However, I think I have found the cure in Unclutterer. I have now made the first step by designating a Charity Box in which to place items that we do not want or need, which we take down to the nearest charity shop when it's full.
For some easy, beginner-unclutterer tips, try 10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutes.
(For a more extreme uncluttering tale, have a read of the book, Bonfire Of The Brands: How I Learnt to Live Without Labels
by Neil Boorman. Not strictly an uncluttering guide, but a very interesting book by a guy who decided to rid himself of all branded goods, which he then burned in a huge bonfire.)
by Elisabeth Doherty (see cover shot below). He's yellow, because that's what I had in my stash and I figured that it didn't matter, since the multicoloured spots meant he wasn't exactly lifelike anyway.
, only 3 months after I bought it. That might actually be a record for me! Here's the finished article, which is a moving-in present for my best friend (who I am sure won't read this before I see her on Sunday):
, which I've just ordered from Amazon Marketplace. I reckon I'll manage it too, since I've joined what's possibly the first Craft Book Club, over on 
