Project ‘Less 365’ update

I haven’t written about our Project Less 365 challenge for a while, but it is alive and well in our household. I’ve been holding strong to one of my favourite quotes from William Morris, which perfectly captures a less is more mantra – 

This week we did some serious downsizing. Our local Debra charity shop has a great service where you can organize a time for them to collect furniture from your home which = perfect for us as we don’t have a car.

The old chair in our bedroom was the first on my list. I had planned on revamping it years ago, but just never did. I hope by sending it to greener pastures it will force us to hang up our clothes, as opposed to what we’re currently doing; seeing just how much clothes we can pile onto it before it breaks. We’re also waving goodbye to our DVD and game shelves; I found a more discrete place to hide our favourite flicks, so we have no need for our shelves anymore.

For a couple of months we’ve been throwing our unwanted clothes into the spare bedroom setting aside clothes to give away. This pic does zero justice to the scale of clothes in those bags; it amounted to 25kg {aka, 55lbs / 4 stone} of clothes. Yeah, I’m still sore from carrying that down the stairs. And there’s still more to go.

Massive added bonus – we have our spare bedroom back! Our poor spare bedroom had been our dumping ground for years. For college it hid portfolios, architectural drawing boards, samples and college work. It’s been covered in teapots, teacups, dresses and hydrangeas in preparation for our wedding. And also stored everything we’ve planned on giving away to charity shops, so opening the door to our messy spare bedroom induced heart palpitations for a long time. That is, until this week. YES. 

For any of you looking to partake in the Project Less 365 challenge, it couldn’t be easier. I keep a dedicated charity shop bag in the cupboard and when I come across something we no longer use / is in need of a new home, I pop it in the bag. Once said bag is full / getting heavy, I drop it into the nearest charity shop I pass. The aim being to donate one item per day on average. Or, as I tend to do, binge-donate. You can see Laura Howard’s original 365 post here. Couldn’t be easier. Less is more, peeps. xx A

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8 Comments

  1. July 18, 2013 / 17:42

    Ha.
    Ya, I did the same thing. The space under the bed was perfect for large flat things like plans or presentation boards!
    Looks fab – and I like the concept.

    • July 20, 2013 / 07:23

      Ugh, still have presentations boards and my massive drawing board under the bed. I'm not brave enough to look under there yet.

  2. July 19, 2013 / 14:46

    Oh! I currently have two big bags of clothes and a bag of shoes in the hallway that I trip over twice a day. It was supposed to incentivise me to take them to a charity shop but they never seem to be open when I'm free to do it (sunday afternoons usually) and I've been wondering about taking them to one of the pink bins in the recycling centres instead… but you've definitely inspired me to take action, because I need to see some floorspace again!

    (I also have a chair-drobe in the bedroom)

    • July 20, 2013 / 07:25

      Chair-drobe – that's awesome, and exactly what we have! Unfortunately.

      Yeah, it is tough sometimes getting around to bringing stuff to the charity shop. Those bags of clothes have been hanging around since New Years. Eeek.

  3. July 20, 2013 / 22:01

    Definitely an admirable project, but one I've not yet worked up the courage for. I had quite an epiphany when I moved home from university last year and dealt with my younger self's hoarder-ish tendencies. I've still got a big eBay & swap pile – somehow giving things to friends is easier to cope with.
    Can I ask where the gorgeous floral pillowcase in the last photo is from?

    • July 21, 2013 / 08:53

      Oh, those are my favourite pillow cases. Aren't they fab? I got them from Arnotts in Dublin, but as they're a British brand, you should be able to get your hands on them!

      They're part of the Dorma Tea Rose bed set – http://bit.ly/12EXmig. Do let me know if you find them! 🙂

  4. July 21, 2013 / 14:30

    It feels so good to do a big clear out every now and then, and this idea to clear one thing every day is just great. I also have a bag of stuff that I keep adding to, and, we also have a dumping ground spare bedroom! I love what you have done to transform your space – beautiful styling, as always, Ms Carberry!

    • July 22, 2013 / 08:17

      It really is a weight off your mind when you clear the clutter! I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who uses the spare bedroom as a dumping ground. It's just too easy to close the door on all the junk.

      xx A