Seven Things Spring season starts

At the same time I undertook my month-long Fiscal Fast back in June, Taph decided she was going to spend a 5 week period until she went away doing a couple of related challenges. The first was Cook from the Cupboard, the second was Seven Things, a project where she committed to get rid of seven things from her home and life each week.

Now this might sound fairly simple but, unlike the original Seven Things Project, she decided to get rid of NETT seven things (ie: if she bought 3 things that week she had to get rid of 10 to make up for them)

With spring in the air, she's decided to recommence her Seven Things challenge, this time for a three month period (and with the new title Seven Things Spring). And I'm going along for the ride (OK, I've only committed for September at this stage but we'll see...)

Here's her manifesto:

"In the spirit of the Seven Things Project, items will be thoughtfully dealt with. Just throwing stuff out isn't part of the deal. Mindful consumption and thoughtful disposal are tenets of this particular faith.

We will report each Sunday (most likely with photos and rationales) in three categories : In, Out and Shake-it-All-About. The aim is that "Out" minus "In" will be greater than or equal to 7.

In
The stuff we bring in to our homes. This includes:

• Stash items of ANY kind
• Other forms of entertainment such as books, magazines, cds etc.
• Items received by subscription, for example, magazines are to be counted.
• Clothes and accessories are to be counted.
• Homewares are to be counted.
• Gifts received are to be counted.

Exempt are consumables such as food and other groceries and items borrowed from the library (but not items borrowed from the library and copied for keeping because that is (a) illegal and (b) not in the spirit of the challenge).

Out
Items deliberately weeded from the house. Consumables do not count. Completely worn out and non-fixable/transformable clothing, household items etc do.

Shake-it-All-About
This category is about transformation. Having taken on this challenge before, I thought it important to acknowledge the creative transformation of items already in the home. This might be as simple as the use of stash buttons on an old blouse to revamp it instead of buying a new blouse or other transformation of clothes. It might be the creation of something new for ourselves or others from stash. Some items from this category will become "outs" which is perfectly fine."

Want to join us for the ride?