Getting rid of stuff

There’s this guy, Dave, who started the 100 Thing Challenge, which seems right up my alley since I love getting rid of stuff! My friend who pointed the article out to me said that this guy is kind of cheating a bit because things of personal value are going into a box for a year and aren’t subject to the challenge.\
I started making a list to see what I could easily purge. Surprisingly, 100 items aren’t that many! If I could get rid of something without disrupting Kevin or the boys then it would be considered mine [ie, clothes, dvds, books, bed pillows (I have three- that is 3% of my alloted total, oh noes!)]. Shared items such as kitchenware, linens, books and dvds we all like are off limits. I also decided not to count consumables like shampoo. So, here is my list:

  • Books- Pride and Prejudice, Mammoth Hunters, the scriptures, the current two books I am reading. I like to read books, I just don’t like to keep them around. Thankfully, the Harry Potter books fall under the shared category.
  • Multiple seasons of a TV show on DVDs will only count as one item. I think I only have three must-haves. Bet you can guess what they are. 🙂
  • I can easily get rid of my CDs thanks to iTunes.
  • I have about 12 items from my childhood and pre-Kevin days I want to keep- yearbooks, doll bank, stuffed animals, Madam X print, my mom’s miniature collection. I have tried to get rid of the mom’s collection twice before but each time I got sad. Since they aren’t taking up a lot of room (they are miniatures, after all), I kept them. If we get a real laundry room in the new house, I am going to display a few in there. That makes me happy in my brain.
  • A handful of electronics- alarm clock, iPod, laptop, cell phone, camera.
  • My jewelry items will count as one item since everything fits in the jewelry box.
  • I have four purses and one fun beach bag that I can’t bear to part with but when packing up my closet, I got rid of five other purses.
  • I can reasonably limit my shoes to seven pairs, but I don’t want to feel deprived. I may decide to just count each shoe rack as one item, instead of individual pairs of shoes.
  • Three coats- rain coat, heavy coat, light coat
  • Sorting out actual clothes is daunting. I did go through them when I was packing, and got rid of a lot of stuff already, so let’s count that as a win, ok? You can tell a man came up with this 100 plan because a woman’s foundation garments, slips, and stockings alone would probably eat up half of the list.\
    So, how many items is that total? Did you remember to count my three bed pillows?\
    Since I am moving and dealing with all of that, this project will probably fall by the wayside. But I am totally on board with leaving a bunch of stuff boxed up in our future garage, which will still make my life and closets less cluttered, so yay.

1 comment

  1. So I was telling the fam about this at dinner and they rolled their eyes at me. HOW RUDE!
    So I suggested that maybe we could do it a little backwards — I propose that we try to rid ourselves of 100 things. If we do 10 a day for 10 days — then we will be 100 things lighter!
    I’m not sure if they are on board with me but I sure like the idea!!!!

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