January 5, 2011

5 stainless mixing bowls - may not seem like a lot but given I had 14, it's a fair chunk.

Another bag of clothes to the trash. Worn out, stained, too small and unnecessary.

And I've convinced my husband to try an experiment with our towels. 3 towels for him (he needs one for the gym), 2 towels for me and 5 towels for guests/trips to the pool or beach/etc. Each of the girls have 3 towels of their own which I won't be touching yet. I'm willing to toss the extras right away (we'll probably donate them to the animal shelter) but he wants a trial period. So we'll wait a month before they leave the house.

I also made the decision to list my Nigella Lawson cookbooks. I really didn't think that one of my problem areas would be cookbooks. But my initial reaction was "not the cookbooks!". I lusted after them for quite some time, asked for one per Christmas for several Christmases. But I don't think I've ever cooked anything out of them. So it makes absolutely no sense to hold on to them. I listed them on kijiji today.

I had an "oh crap" moment today as I looked around. It seems so incredibly overwhelming and impossible if I look at the whole. So I went back to the bedroom and the dresser. Small and manageable and a big impact with a small investment. I started out thinking it would take me a few months to go through the house and thin it all out. Now I'm thinking it's more realistic to plan for at least a year. I'm fairly certain that once I get through the first round I'll be ready to start again and go a little deeper. Not to mention the ongoing process of purging outgrown toys and clothes. But I'm really excited about where this journey will take me. Both at the destination and stops along the way.