Get rid of one possession every day

Working on getting rid of my stereo. My MD/CD stereo. Having a hard time converting MDs into quality mp3s….

Made two full paper bags of books and brought them to the library. Yay.

Personal Goal:
To have less weight in my life; physically and emotionally. Body weight, possessions, emotional baggage, negative thoughts, laziness, lack of confidence….all must go!

Short-term Goal:
To have less stuff on my bookshelf and closet.

I’m decluttering, and documenting it. Getting rid of (at least) one item every day. Blogging and posting pics about my items and my progress. Plus, for fun, a little language lesson with every blog entry…related to the items I’m ditching.

Please visit and comment…I could use the motivation, and the readers! You might be inspired to start getting rid of your stuff…one item at a time.

http://web.mac.com/synaptile/BECOMING_UN-STUFFED/Blog/Blog.html

Anita.

I have been working on this goal for over a year. I want this to be a lofty life-long ordeal, but I have a long way to break even. To date, I am 7078 days old, and have given away 753 items of ranging monetary and sentimental value.

I am sorting out the Christmas decorations. You all aim good thoughts in my direction. I thought there was about 8 boxes of decorations… wrong. 14!!!!! Wreaths, outdoor decorations, snow villages, Norwegian carved whirlygig things. (I have 4 Christmas trees. This is excessive.) I have made it through 4 boxes so far and have one Rubbermaid bin to give away.

It is Christmas in July in my living room until it is all sorted!

I also gave away this week a double bed frame, floor lamp, 20 plastic hangers, and 20 mugs and 10 glasses. I have a dog house ready for the neighbor to come pick up and a suitcase full of clothes for my sister. I have another group of suits and silk dresses to give my sister but they need to go to the dry cleaners first.

In May I gave away 1/3 of my clothes. Lock stock and barrel – every thing that was purple or teal and a lot of blouses that were red and black. I sort my clothes in color groups: Blue yellow white; green orange brown; black red gray; and purple teal. Everything in those colors from tank tops to silk dresses hang together in my closet or are in clear boxes on the shelf just above. As long as I pick from one color group, whatever I pull out matches. I gave away the purple teal group, and 1/2 of black red group. I liked to give away the entire group of black red—but I just don’t have enough pants and skirts to do without the black ones.

Onward! Snow villages here I come!

I’ve done fairly well. I won’t say I’ve given away at least one thing every day, but nearly once a month I’ve carted off a bag of pretty good stuff to Goodwill. Now, remodeling my kitchen, I have good stuff to give away that just won’t work with my new stove

Last night at closing I almost had a truck full to unload. Our recycling center has a give-away shed. Today was going to be a good day for the rummagers!

THe list includes:

A mu-mu!!! Oh golly-gee-willikers Batman! We are talking a MU-MU. I should of had someone take my picture in it and then donated it to the recycle center. It was a black, fushia, lime green, dayglow orange and RED flowered mu-mu. I think it had turquious and yellow in there too. And it was floor-length—it was as big as a Bedouin’s tent. Or a big giant bowl of Fruit Loops!!!

I also gave away an ever-so posh set: leopard faux-fur hat, gloves and scarf—tres chic!

A Belgian Waffle Iron

A pancake griddle

Liz Claiborn shoes… that did not wear as well (as long) as a pair of Liz Claiborn shoes should of…

ONE FULL BIN OF BOOKS. A waist-high, two people couldn’t lift it full bin pf books! Gone Gone Gone. Happy lives books!

A lovely butter yellow sweater I have just had too long.

17 assorted glasses—plastic, glass, odd bits from sets whose mates have broken.

3 bags of Senseo coffee pods. (I have a Melita and Senseo’s are too big.)

A stovetop expresso maker. (I had 2).

A tea kettle. (I just inherited my dear Aunt Myrtle’s Mirro Perkolator—it will do.)

A scrapbook of postcards.

1 nightgown.

To go this week:

MORE SWEATERS. I set aside about half of my sweaters in the fall and challenged myself to make it through the winter without them. Here we are almost to March. I haven’t needed any of them! The set-aside one’s can go to the thrift store.

I am going to do this with other things I have lots of: bathing suits, t-shirts… Some things are easy to get rid of: socks, mix matched glasses – but other things like the sweaters… I love them but know I have too many. This helps prove the point to myself. I just need to remember to put an expiration date on the bag or bin.

Onward! Oh! I know they had a good time at the recycling center this morning!

not so easy

a Shredder (I love electronic bill pay—very few personal papers to shred anymore!)
2 Christmas flower pots
1 pair of sandals
2 mugs
a window-sized air conditioner

I have a few items in the thrift store bag for this week but need to find some more! I’ll have 2-3 Christmas clothing items as soon as the laundry is done.

My next big “weeding project ” is the books. They are all going except gardening books, cookbooks, travel books that are not too out of date (I enjoy vicarious travel), a Bible and a dictionary.

All the novels are going but just a few: one to read and one ready to be read. (If I want to read a book again I can go to the library.) I keep novels that were inscribed to me.

I’ll also have some heirlooms: my 5th great cousins books about travels in China, a romance novel written about my house (Island on a Hill by Dixie Browning), a few childhood storybooks, and a a couple of novels written by friends.

I took my art books to work last fall for the coffee table in the staff lounge. They are very enjoyed there.

I hope to be down to 2 shelves of books when I am done: one with gardening books, another with travel and heirlooms. (There is another bookcase in the kitchen with cookbooks.) I need a spot to store my camera equipment, plus room to sort out all those photos!

b.