100 things challenge, day 87 update

I'm a bit behind. Here's what we've gotten rid of recently. Some of it was given to people I know; the majority was donated.

2 piles of magazines
3 nightgowns
3 shirts
1 small bag of toiletries
5 pairs of shoes
1 purse
2 boxes of kitchen stuff
3 books
2 jeans
2 sweaters
1 vacuum
3 vases
2 box of office supplies
2 picture frames
1 GPS
1 bathroom scale
1 vaporizor
1 briefcase
1 box of dishes
2 boxes of paperwork

total gone 61/100

The last item (paperwork) might be considered a bit of a cheat, but getting rid of two boxes of "to be shredded" stuff is a huge accomplishment in my book. That's two filing drawers of stuff (or would be if we actually got around to filing stuff, lol). A local company hired a shredding company as a community goodwill gesture and you could bring five boxes. It was hard enough to get two boxes together; we try to shred stuff on a regular basis.

I don't think I'm going to meet my deadline; finding 40 more things to get rid of in less than two weeks is definitely going to be a challenge.

100 things challenge, day 24 update

1 small pile of magazines (and we have lots more to get rid of)
1 mattress pad
1 Star Trek candy dish (we've got more ST dishes and "collectibles" if you're interested)
1 large box of dye (I'm finally admitting that I will never revive my silk scarf business)

total gone 22/100

So we're a little behind on getting rid of stuff. Plus, I took a major step backward last week when we went to a library book sale. It was the last day of the sale and books were only $1/bag. I ended up with two bags of books. Now I need to sort though what I've got so I can get rid of some of my current collection in keeping with the one-in-one-out rule.

My 100 things challenge

You may have heard of the 100 thing challenge, but if you haven't, here's a great recap by Conscious Frugal. I would never be able to reduce my belongings to 100 items. I have waaay more 100 clothing items (thank goodness I don't have 100 pairs of shoes), more than 100 pieces of plastic ware (Tupperware, Gladware, Ziplock, Rubbermaid, and more), more than 100 sheets/pillowcases/towels/blankets (I think; I'm too scared to count). I probably have 100 utensils and dishes. Oh wait, I'm sure I do since I've got 16 place settings of fancy china and flatware, plus serving pieces. What was I thinking? In my defense, that's what people registered for when I got married oh so long ago. As for scrapbooking, I'm sure I have at least 100 sheets of cardstock in every color of the rainbow, plus black, white, tan, 100 kinds of ribbons, flowers, fibers...I better stop there.

So in my quest to simplify my life, I've issued myself a challenge: Get rid of 100 things in 100 days. Starting tomorrow, August 13th, ending November 20. That's one thing a day. Whaddya think? Can I do it??? Think we can do it? Note that Mr. Fix-it doesn't know about this challenge (yet), but I'm sure he'll do what he can to help. I hope I don't start out strong and then fizzle out. The reality is, I will most likely be getting rid of stuff on the weekends and not during the week, so I need to get rid of 5-10 things every weekend.

There's only one rule. To count, it has to out of the house. It can't be in the donate box, it can't be in the Craig's List/ebay box. It has to be gone! Wish this packrat luck!

Simplify: Baby steps

I've added a few minimalism and simplicity blogs to my Reader (which is cluttering my Reader, but let's not go there). What's the difference between the two? I'm not sure, but here's a good explanation. I think I'm more into the simplicity than minimalism. I like my little luxuries.

So what am I doing to simplify my life? I'm trying, trying, trying to declutter. It is a difficult task since I'm a packrat. One big step is to get rid of boxes. I have a tendency to stuff things into boxes to sort later. But somehow, later never comes.

I'm doing okay on my clothing rule of new in, old out. I got a couple of great turtlenecks at Target (only $7!) and even at that cheap price, I was still able to stick with my rule. In the past, I would have justified keeping everything in my closet "because the other stuff costs more." But I'm not allowing myself to put the new clothes away until the old clothes has been added to the giveaway bin so I had to get rid of the old stuff to avoid more clutter.

As for groceries, I'm trying not to stockpile as much. Really, how much pasta does one need? (Although a third of the pasta stash is already gone.) I've only made small trips to the grocery stores in the past month and our diet hasn't suffered at all.

Baby steps, but steps in the right direction.