The following is a transcrpit of the 2 minute radio segments I present
3 times per week on 101FM You can listen in live via the website every
Mon-Wed-Fri at 2:30PM AEST (Sun-Tue-Thur at 9:30PM PT  12:30AM ET
4:30AM GM)

Hiring versus Owning to reduce clutter.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking, I too prefer to own things it seems easier and more convenient to do so. But think about just a few scenarios here; Imagine you pay say $800 to buy a snow board to go snow boarding for a week once a year , you have to lug it from your sunny homestate  to the snow fields thousands of miles away, it’s awkward to travel with and is easily damaged. When you’re not using it you have to store it and ensure it remains safe. The alternative is to rent one for the week at considerably less cost about $150. You have absolutely no travelling & storing hassles and you can hire for 5 seasons for the cost of the board. Now if you’re using it far more frequently then that’s a another matter.

This strategy can be applied to quite a number if different situations - camping, for eg.  Before you buy something think about how often you’ll use it and where you’ll store it and what it’s like to transport it etc, and then check to see if hiring wouldn’t be a better option, while hired items aren’t always new they are usually relatively current - they tend to have to be so.  In the case of the snowboard I can almost guarantee that IF you’re still boarding annually you would, by the 4th - 5th season be itching to get a newer model board, yours would be 4-5 years old, but the hired ones are most probably only a couple of season old at most. Now I can hear you saying yeah but it’s a hassle to arrange to hire it, it’s easier to grab my board and go.

OK let’s look at that. First of all you probably spent at least two hours in the store and more time researching to buy the board in the first place, then you need to add in the time it takes to deal with the board each time you use it, the packing, handling etc as opposed to no handling time.   Conversely it might take 30 minutes to hire the board but after the first time, you’ll know what to ask for so it’ll be quicker AND as you improve you can change the board type to suit your skill level, if you bought it you’d be stuck with it or need to folk out for a new one.
This can also be the case in business. If you’re a small business owner it’s worth investigating and discussing with your accountant if hiring is a better option long-term and tax wise than actually purchasing certain items. There’s a time, energy and money cost involved in dealing with owned items both physically and recording keeping. Even if you stop using something and store it at the back of the office it may well still be costing you in taxes and accounting fees, Check your list of taxable items and see how much junk is on them.

That’s it for this time, next episode we start to tackle individual problems places in the home.

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The following is a transcrpit of the 2 minute radio segments I present
3 times per week on 101FM You can listen in live via the website every
Mon-Wed-Fri at 2:30PM AEST (Sun-Tue-Thur at 9:30PM PT  12:30AM ET
4:30AM GM)

Some of the kinds of items that you might not think are clutter but really are!
Of course when it comes to really sorting item by item, what you consider clutter may be a treasured item for the next person that’s a given, however, my intention here is to bring to your awareness certain things and the reasons you have those things so you can question for yourself if they really are trash or treasure.
For example holiday souvenirs generally bought to basically prove that you’ve been to woop woop. Perhaps it’s handpainted and the kids think it’s cute. Think about this:

1. why do need to prove you’ve been to woop woop? - you know you did, so that’s all that matters.

2. You’ll have to take care of the item, protect it, dust it, clean it etc - an investment of your time on a regular basis. You’re creating more work for yourself after your lovely holiday - kinda takes the edge of the holiday doesn’t it?

3. Does it fit with your decor?

4. Where will you put it?.

Just take a picture of it perhaps one with you holding it and be done with it, you’ll save money as well!
Another example are fix-it things. Do you know that about 2% of broken things ever get fixed. Here’s a list of items frequently found among possessions that require fixing;

cassette tapes, hair dryers, ruined electrical cords, unstrung rackets, wobbly legged chairs, dismembered dolls & toys, cracked dishes, defective clocks, dead torches, lounges with torn or rotting webbing, umbrellas with broken ribs, shoes with broken heels and the list goes on!            Are any of those familiar?
All of these things served a purpose, perhaps they didn’t perform as long as they should OR you got it for a bargain and it served you really well for a long time so now you think you kinda owe it somehow and throwing it out would be disrespectful - let me remind you - they’re inanimate objects! they’re broken - just say thanks and throw them out. Like us objects have a life span - I’m sure you’d agree that keeping the embalmed bodies of loved ones  lolling around the house taking up space needing dusting & cleaning and serving no purpose. is quite impractical!
Harsh analogy I know but you see what I mean, and so it is with things.

That’s it for this time, next episode a I’ll get you thinking about hiring versus owning as a clutter reducing strategy.

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