Approaching One Thousand Things Decluttered

So these things pictured are now banished from my home, and that brings my recent total to Nine Hundred and Seventy-Five things de-cluttered from my home (well, from the basement and garage anyway).

I shared my project's goal with my husband who I think is regarding my blog documentation with some amusement. He is skeptical that I'll actually reach ten thousand items. Not because he doesn't think I'm not doing a good job getting rid of things--he just figured I can't possibly have that much stuff.

But I bet there is.

Eight Hundred Things Gone....

Turtles and Books

The turtle in the top photo feels like I've been trying to get rid of it forever.

First the daycare gave it to me to sell, and it was so cute I was sure it would (but it didn't), then I gave it back to the daycare and they used it for a while, then it found its way back to my garage because of disuse. Time to give the wee turtle the boot after three years in limbo.

Children's books are much easier for me to let go of now that I'm running the Daycare Library Book program. Now so many new and well-loved books are flowing in and out all the time that it scarcely seems necessary to have so many books that I keep at home. (Though I still have several deep drawers in a dress that are still full to the top with books I haven't made a decision on yet.)

This clean-out brings my total of things gone to 675. :)

Working on the Garage

Well, here's another two hundred items gone from my home...I'm quite positive none will be missed.

And that brings my total of items gone to....let me go check... 500 things! (One twentieth of my goal).

Anyway, the top two garage shelves are almost entirely bare. And they are BIG shelves too, so my project's results are really starting to be noticeable when you drive the car into the garage.

300 Things Gone

The Goodwill continues to have a "One Bag Only of Donations Per Day" posted on its door for now, but I have also discovered that the library accepts donations of books all year round for their annual sale so most of the books I'm getting rid of will be dropped off there.

The Second Hundred Things Out the Door

This is the next batch of things I'm boxing up.

Some of it is going to the Goodwill, some to the daycare, and I think that the purple shirt in the second picture will soon belong to Zoe.

So. That's 200 things.

It's been harder to get rid of things than I thought. Not because these items are particularly wrenching to part with, but because the thrift store had a sign on the door all last week saying they'd only accept one bag of donations a day.

Some days I didn't have time to drop a bag or box off so it was a long, drawn-out process. It was rather disheartening. I'd rather hoped to get rid of a trunkful of things in one fell swoop and be back again the next day with another.

The First Hundred Things

Pictured here are the first One Hundred Things that are going out my door this week to the thrift shop. I've decided that I'm finished having garage sales and doing flea markets .

And so now I must get rid of My Stock (as I mentally refer to it) before my resolve crumbles.

I know it's worth money because, as I've often said, I've been nickel-and-diming my way to fortune for eight years now. I look at an old toy and see fifty cents, a vase might be a dollar. The reality is that over time I might glean several hundred dollars from the boxes upon boxes in the basement and garage. I see the potential in junk.

But I've come (at least temporarily) to the conclusion that it's all too much mess. It's too much trouble. It's too much stuff. I'd rather not have sale after sale and spend all day in the driveway flogging all this stuff.

Very little of it has emotional value to me, none of it is valuable as an individual item. I'd be very surprised if any savvy garage-sale shopper would pay me more than two dollars for anything I have on offer.

But I have so MUCH!

I mean, how many items are down there in those boxes? Hundreds? Thousands?

I look at these four photographs of one hundred items that have been stagnating in my basement and it doesn't really look like that much. Now I'm curious....do I have ten thousand things to get rid of? I think it's possible.