365 days of de-cluttering - the beginning

I’m embarking on this quest to get rid of stuff.  I’m not a hoarder by any means.  In fact, my husband and I are more ruthless than any member of either family when it comes to purging.  However, it seems that we’re always drowning in too much stuff.  Perhaps it’s because we have a 4-year old who seems to generate stuff – papers from school, favors from birthday parties and other events, and the ever present toys.  Her birthday is in June so we have twice a year influxes of additional toys.  I should mention that the child has three sets of grandparents rather than the traditional two sets.  Also, just about any visit from my mother will result in additional surprises generally non-essential in nature but charming to my daughter.  Although I can blame a good 60% of the extra stuff on my daughter, I am not blame free.  I tend to suffer from a bit of the binge-and-purge when it comes to stuff.  I accumulate slow and steady until I realize that I’m sick of junk all over my space.  Then I go nuts, getting rid of stuff.  In order for this to work, I have to address both sides of the equation – the ins and outs of stuff.  The influx of stuff is a habit that I will need to address over the course of the year.  The outflow can be managed easily enough as long as I can commit to doing it regularly.

So this year, I am committing to get rid of one thing every day.  In addition, on days when new stuff arrives – clothes, shoes, housewares, etc., I will get rid of two things.

My main means of disposal will be either consignment (always nice to get an extra dollar or two), donation (or freecycle), recycling or trash.  I would like to make my stuff available to someone who needs it if at all possible.  Trash is a last resort but let’s face it some stuff just needs to go away forever.

I am tracking what I get rid of and will post a count every month. 

First Post

Well here I am in the blog-o-sphere a good 10 years behind everyone else (as usual).  I have been talking about having a blog with my husband for at least the past 3 years.  I was going to call it the Damndest Thing I Saw Today and would use it to catalog all the random stuff I see and people I encounter.  I still may do that as a column on this blog.  We'll see how it goes.

Another thing I want to do with this blog is to capture my 2011 project which is to de-clutter my house one item at a time.  More specifically, one item every day.  My next post will expand on this.  For now, it feels good to have a forum and to write which is something I do for work but do not do enough for my own enjoyment.  The fact that nobody will read this is pretty irrelevant.