This is the space that I am devoting to documenting my decluttering journey. You can find all of the other posts here.
Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Check out what that means to you here.
I got a phone call from one of my sweetheart’s earlier this morning. He calls me regularly and tells me he loves me every time we start to hang up the phone. I’m going to call him Bob and he is somewhere in the vicinity of 90 years old. He is an amazing man. The little snippets of his life that I am privy to are unbelievable. Example: When we first moved here to our tiny town, he and I were having a conversation one day and he asked me where I was originally from. When I told him the name of my tiny hometown he said “How about that!” He was in a foxhole in Korea in 1951 with a man from my hometown. What are the odds?
We talk about everything and anything. Today’s topic was decluttering. Bob is doing what sounds like Swedish death cleaning to me. He isn’t dying. He is hale and hearty, and seriously could live another twenty years. He’s active; he golf’s two or three times a week, drives to see one of his remaining sister-in-laws in Detroit almost every year and cleans his own home every single week from top to bottom.
But he said he’s tired of being surrounded by THINGS. Things he has to dust and clean every week. Things his family have already told him they don’t want. And when he finally does go home to heaven to be with his beloved wife, who’s been gone for over a decade, he doesn’t want to leave his family with all of this stuff.
This entire conversation was prompted by him questioning whether or not our local Salvation Army would take the crystal he was tired of dusting each week in his china cabinet or if he should just chunk it into the garbage! I assured him that they would definitely take it and that he needed to get one of his grandkids to come over and check to see what it was worth first. He still has his mother’s china. Which thankfully is going to one of his great-granddaughters who actually wants it.
All of that to say – our conversation renewed my zeal to get ALL THE THINGS out of my house that we don’t love.
Let’s see what’s going to live with someone else this week:
I told my brother that things are getting serious now. I’ve started in on my Christmas stuff. Also, Denton has joined Hayden’s bandwagon of only wanting black socks. I have no idea whose is whose now.
I also sat down and made a huge dent in my travel books. I think I only have five left now.
Note to self: Don’t buy the book until you hear back from Daddy. He texted me after Hayden and I had already checked out and said “Yes, I have this one. You bought it for me. I love you.” Hahahaha. So don’t be surprised when you see this in my latest book haul. Never fear, it can now go to live with someone who doesn’t already own a copy of it.
More extras of things that we don’t need…..
Even more extras…..
And the clothes……
I have started making myself reach for things that I haven’t worn in years. If I don’t want to put it on my body, it goes straight into the wicker go-away basket. If I do want to try it and then decide after wearing it for the day that I don’t like it, it didn’t fit well, or it just isn’t my style anymore – same thing, straight into the wicker go-away basket.
My goal this year is to completely pare my wardrobe down to only the actual things that I love and I know fit me well. That might turn out to be only 14 items, but I’d seriously rather only have those 14 items in my closet than a bunch of stuff that I have to shove past to get to the things I actually want to wear.
Woohoo! My wicker go-away basket is empty! It may only stay that way for a day or two, but I haven’t seen the bottom of it in a while. I am loving this get it all out of the house every week thing. It’s working out very, very well. Everything has been bagged up, and put into the Pilot to be carted away tomorrow morning.
What have you hauled away recently? Do tell.