Ask:
I have been doing five for the road for around 9 months now. I get rid of 5 things every day, 7 days a week, and many times much more than 5. A conservative estimate of the number of items I have either donated or tossed in the last 9 months is 1350-1500! I want to stress...that is VERY conservative!
My closets and storage look a million times better, but today I found 30 plastic hangers and 50 children's hangers in the guest room closet! What was I thinking??? Why did I think I needed all those extra hangers? Where did they come from? How long had they been there?? I don't know the answer to those questions.
I DO know that I am ashamed and embarrassed by how much my family and I had "consumed" in recent years. Why were we doing it? We are so much happier these days with more time on our hands than useless stuff. I just can't believe it took us so long to realize it...
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I am still working on this concept. Getting rid of stuff. I have been decluttering for quite awhile now, but do not seem to be getting too far! Thank you for encouraging us all to live more simply!
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I wonder the same thing! Where does it all come from? What was I thinking? I just was looking at all the Valentine's Day clearance I bought from Target last year. I only put up a couple of decorations this year- so much of what I bought doesn't even appeal to me now. I bought eight hand towels with hearts- eight! Ugh.
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Yesterday I cleaned out my closet - again. I felt if I hadn't worn it yet this season I wasn't going to wear it next winter.
My big issue is toys - I bought way too many at the yard sale for $1. I'm trying to get rid of them for free.
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This sounds like a fun concept, we should try it at our house!
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I hear ya.. lol! I'm thankful to say that since New Years Even I have been faithfully decluttering and have gotten rid of so much STUFF!!! My place is clean, organized, and we have no extra 'junk' lying around anymore.. upkeep to keep my place in tip top condition is so fast and easy now... people could drop it anytime and I wouldn't think twice about having them in.. whereas before, i'd say, "quick! shut the bedroom door!"
Once you get your entire place decluttered its SO much easier to keep up with it... i'd be hard pressed now to toss 5 things every day now... It's a great feeling!
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Isn't that the truth? We had a HUGE garage sale last year, and are going to have another this year. I swear we have enough "stuff" for another family or two to live on. WHY??? I know we're not any different than any other family, and if anything buy LESS than the average American. We are so much better off this year in not bringing the stuff in the house to begin with, but it's always a work in progress. Good luck!
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I feel like every three months I could purge the entire house all over again and I havent even brought anything new in. I hve no idea where this stuff comes from. A month ago I had a big yard sale and Today I found two bags of things I could have gotten rid of. At this point Im done with yard sales so Im just going to donate anything I find.
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Originally Posted by jnbythesea
I bought eight hand towels with hearts- eight! Ugh.
This was me the last few years. Why buy one pair of christmas socks at 90% off for dd when I could get 10 pairs! For pete's sake...she would never wear 10 pairs. I am not even sure she wore the one pair. Blech!
Thank goodness I have seen the error of my ways and have developed the impulse control to stop this kind of nonsense.
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Originally Posted by chatsalot
My place is clean, organized, and we have no extra 'junk' lying around anymore.. upkeep to keep my place in tip top condition is so fast and easy now... people could drop it anytime and I wouldn't think twice about having them in.. whereas before, i'd say, "quick! shut the bedroom door!"
Once you get your entire place decluttered its SO much easier to keep up with it... i'd be hard pressed now to toss 5 things every day now... It's a great feeling!
This is SO true. I have always been extremely clean and organized, but I too am finding that with less stuff everything goes faster. Daily and weekly cleaning are a breeze and my entire house can be picked up for unexpected company in under 10 minutes...easily.
I have a TON of extra time to do things I like now. After I vacuumed today dd and I made rice pudding and went out and picked two daffodil and hyacinth bouquets for the house from the yard. I never felt like we had to "hurry things up" because we had other things to do...cleaning, organizing, moving things around, etc.