get rid of stuff i don't need

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!

I spent some time on this earlier this week, but it feels like small potatoes. I decideed to set aside a block of time this weekend to focus on it again, even if it’s only an hour or two. This will help me feel like I’m serious about it. And it will help me get ready for garage sale #3!!!

... helped with this goal, but we’ve got a long way to go. At least one more garage sale. I need to try Freecycle, too.

yess im a giant pack rat.

i want to get rid of some of that crap i know i will never need. granted im a preformance artist and i can use most anything. but there is just some stuff that really needs to go.

so i have been working on my clothes. got rid of tons and made my lil sisters very happy. some stuff they have been eye bawling for some time. then some of the kids i know that arnt as fortunate to have some of the stuff i have.so i have it to them with a smile..

now on to the good keepsakes and stuff. but anything my girlfriend gives me im keeping

In order to keep moving forward on this arm of my Purging Triad, I will go through the following locations in the house, getting rid of stuff I don’t need:
- my closet
- the linen closet
- the top shelf in the mudroom
- one file cabinet drawer

... you’ll see that I have three in a row focused on the same general idea—cleaning up, getting rid of stuff I don’t need, & having a garage sale. Maybe it’s “cheating” to have three goals aimed at the same overall result … but if it is, I don’t care! I really want to get this done, and this is one way to motivate myself! I spent an hour or more thinning out books, desk stuff, winter clothes, cleaning supplies, bathroom cupboards and so on. I came away from each location with items in three main categories:

- garbage
- garage sale
- put it away (this falls under “get organized”)

I plan to keep on looking for things I don’t need and getting rid of them. One thing I’ve noticed is that mindfulness helps me with this task. There are some things I’ve just gotten used to having around (like the dead printer) that are only here because they fit into a special category not listed above:

- requires special handling in order to dispose of correctly.

So the key here, it seems, is to stop procrastinating and just do it!

Well, I haven’t gotten anything actually out the door, but I did identify another bin’s worth of items to get rid of. Since my spring cleaning will be done as of today, I’m planning to go to the storage unit tomorrow to take photos for ebay. I also have two bags of clothes that I will run to our local thrift shop by Friday. They aren’t always open so you have to call ahead. I always end up forgetting until it’s too late to take stuff over.

Mark, my fiance, had part of yesterday off so he cleaned out our shed, which was full of my crap. He took everything to our storage unit, and I helped him sort it into things to keep and things to sort for getting rid of. I was very proud because we only have a total of 8 bins with “keep” and there were about 15 bins to get rid of! A lot of it is good stuff and I would like to put most of the items on ebay because I know they will sell.

It might take me awhile to get the stuff posted to ebay, but I’m very happy that I plan to get rid of twice as much as I plan to keep. The stuff I’m keeping is Christmas decorations, wrapping paper for the next holiday season, schoolwork, some toys for our future kids, and a few other things from childhood. Mainly, stuff that I feel is ok to store and won’t just sit there indefinitely.

Eventually, I would like to get my schoolwork scanned in to PDFs, so I might be able to get rid of more bins in the future. My fiance bought me a 1 terabyte external hard drive, so I definitely have the electronic storage space.

Well, it’s 3 years since my original entry and this is still a goal. I have gotten rid of many things, but I have new stuff to sort out. My fiance and I have a small 3-bedroom house. Now that everything is out of storage, I can see how much stuff I really have. We were so cluttered that we got a storage unit to take stuff to while I sort it. It’s helped because I can leave stuff out when I’m sick of working on it, close the door and go home to my clean, organized house.

I’ve realized my battle isn’t attachment to stuff, it’s the wanting to make some of my money back. I have such a hard time taking nice stuff to the donation box, but with planning a wedding, working on my health, and working full time, I just don’t have time to ebay it. I need to accept that the money is gone and let it go. But I’m not there yet.

Where to start? I have already gotten rid of music I don’t play anymore, books I am done reading … am trying to limit the yarn stash … what next?