A little at a time…

When I first started this project, I got a lot of comments from people. Most of them were supportive and positive. A few felt they could never commit to eliminating a 1,000 things in their home.. It just seemed to be too large of a number. Lack of time was the excuse I heard most. But I’m here to share that really a thousand isn’t that large if you break it into small tasks. I could never clean out an entire room in one day; it would be too overwhelming for me. In the past, I’ve tried to do large projects like that but the visual clutter would make me crazy. I would begin with good intentions, but the decluttering would never be finished in one day. In fact, I’m almost guaranteed to leave a bigger mess than when I started!!

So now, I break it into small tasks; a drawer here or a cupboard there. Something I can finish and feel a small sense of accomplishment. That said, in between work and my family, I only cleaned out my son’s dresser. I’m only purging some old T-shirts and a couple of sweat shirts but the pieces count towards my total (yea!) so it’s a win! So even this small amount makes feel accomplished of my larger goal.These will be passed down to younger kids (recycled) and some will be donated to a local charity. My current total towards my 1,000 items is 225. Not much this week but I’m hoping to do more next week when I have some more time. I’m thinking I need to start on my basement which is one of the more challenging areas of my house.

Besides eliminating stuff from my home and encouraging others to do the same, I’d like to share with all of you how you can donate your things.You may have seen this video on facebook but I’d like to share it with all of you. This company called ,Give Back Box, will take your unwanted items and donate them to charities such as the Goodwill.Plus they’ll send you a pre-paid shipping label for all of your stuff. Great, right? You can send in clothing, toys and household items. Please click here for more information.

Have a great week and if you have any other ways to donate your unwanted things, please let me know!

 

It’s begun!

First of all, a huge thank you to all of you who commented on my first post and have either joined me or asked about my project! It’s been a slow week of purging in my household but I’m trying to tackle a small area every few days. Since the new year, I’ve eliminated 239 items from my home. Most of these items have been donated. A few things like CD’s  (check out decluttr.com) and household goods have been sold online. I’m lucky that my town has several local online yard sales to post items. One of the best parts about purging areas of my home is that my husband, John got involved and cleaned out his closet and bureau. Woo hoo! I even gained an extra dresser drawer for myself!

Today, I cleaned out a small linen closet. My thinking is that if I organize this small space, it made lead to calmer mornings as I get ready to face my day. I discovered  I have I had lots of top sheets with no matching fitted sheets. These along with some old bath and beach towels will be donated to a local animal shelter. The other thing I have a lot of are unused toiletries. As a teacher, I receive tons of body wash/lotion sets every year. As appreciative I am of the gifts, some of the scents never appealed to me so they ended up shoved in this closet. I’m thinking these will go to the AGAPE program at my church. My trash pile consisted of lots of old medicines, which expired and half used bottles of products I’ve tried but never used again. I have a bin labeled “children’s medicine” that hasn’t been touched in years. So why is it still there? Can anyone relate to this?

So I’m curious to hear how all of you are doing with your own projects. Have you begun yet? Kept track of your items? And most importantly, what are you doing with all that stuff you bagged up? If you’re unsure of what to do with all of those bags take a look at this link. I’ve never used this site but I’m curious to hear if anyone has tried it. It sounds like once you schedule a pickup, they will be at your home within 24 hours. And you don’t have to be home. Please let me know what methods you’re using to rid your life of unnecessary stuff!

A Thousand Less-Getting rid of 1000 things in my home

A few years ago, I read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. The book focuses on the authors journey towards getting what she wants out of life. Each month, Gretchen would focus on a different area of her life, and try to maintain that throughout the year while picking up a new focus each month. I really enjoyed this book and as a result followed Gretchen on many forms of social media to keep up with her.

Last month, Gretchen posted this TED talk to her Facebook page, which I watched immediately. To sum it up, the speaker, Liz Wright, discusses how she spent so much of her life focusing on ‘stuff’ and challenged herself to get rid of 1000 things in various ways.  I was instantly inspired upon watching this because my house is always, always cluttered! The clutter and massive amounts of stuff in my house makes me crazy and super stressed out, because I cannot get rid of the visual of all the things I have to worry about. When my space is cluttered, my brain is cluttered, and it becomes  difficult to focus on things that I need to accomplish in my day to day life.

So, in turn, I have challenged myself to get rid of 1000 things I don’t need in 2018. This will be an easy task for me, because my family has so many things that we don’t use taking up space in our home. This blog is a way for me to hold myself accountable for this project and ensure that I actually complete it, instead of starting the challenge and never finishing (which we are all guilty of sometimes). The ultimate goal for me is to make the energy in my house lighter through decluttering, as well as find new homes for things we no longer need or use. Through purging these items from my home, I am hoping to clear my headspace as well.

I would love to see some of my family and friends join me in this challenge! In the upcoming weeks I will be posting my progress, and I look forward to seeing the progress you make as well!