I took the opportunity to purge as much clutter as possible and not get new stuff. The results are amazing! I am getting unprecedented breathing space, or so it seems. While I have never been a hoarder in my life, I have been on the untidy side, and after so many moves in the last ten years or so, amassed an amazing amount of clutter. One of the things I’ve been doing these days is trade in as much as possible on Amazon, sell tons, give away to friends, and donate the rest. From the Amazon trade-ins alone I’ve received about 400 dollars in credit which, combined with other opportunities for gift cards, allowed me to get my dog’s preventatives and meds for free for an entire year! Since I also live at a place where the winters are rather terrible, I also got a free, brand new snow blower!! Absolutely amazing.

The fact that a dear friend is coming for a visit in about 10 days also contributed to my decision to hasten my purging efforts, but, truth be told, I had already started before. :)