get rid of stuff i don't need

I’m torn. I haven’t woven since about 2003. Long story, series of very stressful incidents not really related to weaving but which were tangentially associated with it. Until then, it was such a passion for me. But I just haven’t been able to get myself to even think about weaving, much less to sit down on my bench. In fact, I’ve REPLACED that passion with a passion for watercolor painting …

Yet, I’m torn. Do I want to weave again, now or in the future? Or should I just get rid of one or both of these space-consuming devices (and the boxes of associated tools, books and materials) until such time as my interest returns? This decision is made more difficult by the fact that Dad did some beautiful woodworking to build a stand for the 8-harness.

I don’t know what I’ll do, but I would like to make a decision before March 1. Voluntary simplicity is “voluntary,” and I am not trying to be a ‘nazi’ about it. But I’m really tired of having these beasts taking up space and not being useful to me now, even if they once were and might be again ‘some day.’

It helps me to write it out. To see it here in black & white. I will decide by March 1. Weave now or forever hold your peace.

Day 2 went about the same as Day 1 in terms of dollars sold. That evening, I loaded LOTS of stuff into the back of my station wagen, and the next day I took it to goodwill. Tonight, I’ll put another load in the car. Feels good, except for the lingering knowledge that we still have a lot of stuff that will need to go into Garage Sale #4 next spring!

First day of 2day sale went well. Sold about $50 worth of stuff. Not much, but enough to pay for the ad and get rid of a few things. One guy indicated he may be back tomorrow to get 2 tables and an entertainment center. That would be great, since those are heavy and awkward to get rid haul away.

As I said, we plan to get rid of whatever doesn’t sell tomorrow. We’ll use freecycle, goodwill, and the dump. Good bye excess stuff!

Okay, we’ve scheduled it! The ads should run in next week’s newspapers, so we’re committed to it. I’m not hopeful we’ll get rid of much, so we are already planning to sort things for donations and dump. May try a “Freecycle” ad after the sale, too.

Have worked a bit on my clothes closet, finally. Wow. I’m thinking that in some ways, secondhand stores have NOT been a good thing: too many clothes, even if they ARE inexpensive ones! The good news is that in going through things I found that most of what I have actually gets worn fairly regularly. Still, I want to keep paring down. Something in = something out.

I FINALLY had my yard sale this weekend. I can’t believe how much stuff I had to put out! We have a two-car driveway that was completely packed with stuff. We even kept putting stuff out throughout the day as we had more space on our tables. Our neighbors in the house next door were having a moving sale, so we drew a huge crowd. By the end of the day, I had $400+ in my pocket and only 5 bins left of stuff. Mark, my husband, convinced me to leave it outside with a “free” sign attached. I think that was the hardest part of the day. I have a hard time letting things go and I was doing pretty well, since people were handing me cash to trade, but leaving the rest of it out like it was rubbish really depressed me. People took it by the end of the evening, but it is still bothering me a bit. Isn’t it crazy how our minds work? Anyway, cash in my pocket and being less burdened with stuff is a really great feeling. I literally have 50% less stuff (not including furniture) than I had before. I can’t believe I did it!

I am very proud of myself for all I got rid of before I moved out of my apartment.

I still have a long way to go, starting with any junk I may have missed while packing and then to my room at home.

We postponed our garage sale because we have even more stuff to sort than I thought. Mark emptied our 10×10 storage unit yesterday and now our yard is full of storage bins. It’s kind of funny actually. We’re going to sort and price items starting when we get home tonight. I bought labels and bright poster board yesterday and I’m going to start advertising tomorrow. I wish that we had a daily paper in the area so that I could post an ad. At least I can post on Craigslist, even though it isn’t heavily used in our area.

At least the storage unit is cleaned out! We will have $65 more in our pocket next month.

My wedding is over and done and Mark’s hours have been cut, so we spent the weekend and the past few days cleaning out the house. We need money since we just bought a new car and the down payment made this month tight with his hours cut. Money is such a good motivator!

My goal is to get the storage unit cleaned out so that we don’t need it anymore. By the end of this week, I hope to have about 30-40% less stuff. Anything we don’t sell is going straight to the local thrift store. Once it’s out of the house, it’s gone for good!

I’m getting really excited about having so much less to deal with. I haven’t been able to work on this goal for awhile because of the wedding.

Actually, it’s good motivation! We are consolidating two households, so suddenly we have even more stuff in the house! AHHhhhhhh! It makes me crazy! But really, it’s a good thing: more motivation to keep on task!