I did it! I joined a month long challenge and I followed through (quite successfully, I might add!) Can you tell that I'm giving myself a pat on the back? If you've read any number of my blog posts or know me in real life, you know that I tend to be follow-through-challenged. I always have these great ideas and the best of intentions, and then somewhere after the first few days the motivation escapes me and I quit. I'm not proud of that, its something that I'm slowly working on changing, and I am proud of myself for this accomplishment!
The Clutter Challenge was to get rid of 7 or more things every day in the month of May. Some days I found more than 7 items, some days I wrote "7 Things" on my to-do list, only to end up writing "14 Things" on the next day's list. I wish I would have kept a running tally to see exactly how much I purged from the house! There were a few things that got sold online along the way, some things that went straight to the trash or recycle and a giant pile that made it's way into the garage for our upcoming moving sale.
One thing I learned from this challenge is that not only do I have a habit of holding on to things for those "what if's" that I think up, but also that it does help to sometimes walk away for a bit and then approach things again later with a fresh outlook. Two big rubbermaid tubs of things that didn't sell at the consignment sale were sitting right next to our front door for most of the month of May. I emptied them out this morning and told myself that I would only keep the best items for the fall consignment sale, and only what I could fit into one of the tubs.... everything else would be garage sale bound. When I looked through those two tubs a few weeks ago, in my mind I wanted to keep everything for the next consignment sale. This morning, with renewed motivation, I kept only a quarter of the items. Yes, consignment sales draw much better prices than yardsales, but it also would require moving and storing more than is really necessary.
At this point, I have completed the challenge, but I plan on continuing to keep an open mind about "stuff" and try my best to only keep the things that are used often or loved much. After all, everything we own needs to fit in a moving truck in a few weeks!
