Aaah, the Serenity

The title of this post comes from one of the greatest Australian movies of all time - The Castle. If you haven't watched it, put it on your list.

Today the car boot was loaded up with all manner of goodies including but not limited to paper sewing patters, a creme brulee blow torch, a frying pan, wok, socks, slippers, two egg cups, loofah soap, loofah, green tea pot, hair brush, two oil vapourisers, six green tea cups, two espresso cups and saucers, two glass teacups and saucers, one side plate, two measuring jugs, empty ring boxes, a zip coin purse, bikini from the early 90s, two lanyards, a white cotton sunhat, six books and... at least 60% of my magazine stash.

I think I conquered the 100 Things challenge in one day.

Doing it the way I did it was a little traumatic for me though, and I pulled some of the magazines from the pile at the 11th hour. I felt like someone was taking them away from me!. I did things quickly though, not slowly and methodically, and I didn't analyse whether I would actually use it, I just got rid of it. This is good in the initial purge, but taking everything away within 24 hours was the unsettling part.

Now that all this stuff is gone, our office looks much more manageable. I still have things that have to be sorted and taken away, but I feel like I can exhale now. And I know I can be much more ruthless on a day to day basis.

I've only briefly glanced at FlyLady's website a few times, but I remember her 27 fling boogie. Each day find 27 items to take out of the house - and do it quickly, within 15 minutes. Don't take hours floating around deciding if you want to keep or discard something.

In the book I have already quoted from here, 'Younger by the Day' by Victoria Moran, she has another essay called Solution-27. Solution-27 is the belief that 27 is a number that has powerful meaning. 27 signifies completion and putting a problem to rest. Feng shui practitioners advocate moving 27 objects in your home and you can change your life. Victoria says she applies it to clutter. Every day she puts back to its rightful place 27 items.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that 27 is the number both these women use?

The Solution-27 essay is on page 154 if you're passing a bookshop and want a quick read. Do you think Victoria would mind me putting this one on my blog as well as the Postcard from Paris I already have? It's a very cool book to have, not one that can be taken out of the library and read cover to cover. I flick through it when I need a shove.

One of my favourite blog reads at the moment is Faux Fuchsia. She is unstoppable and often talks about being good at 'actioning things quickly' when folk ask her how she does all she does in a day. She's also a gun declutterer. I thought about her words as I fired box loads out the door.

And in the twin spirits of decluttering and thrift, I made a beef casserole in the slowcooker today (it's Autumn here after all). The base ingredients were canned tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, beer and beef stock but I also added the last few craisins (dried cranberries) from the fridge, frozen pieces of capsicum, bay leaves, chunks of pumpkin and other things I had tucked away in the freezer - a tablespoon of tomato paste here, a few rosemary twigs there. My freezer is decluttered and dinner is almost ready. Nice one.