A Place For My Stuff
May 12th, 2008 | by Jeniffer |
Do you ever think about the stuff in your life?
You know, the clothes you don’t wear, the knickknacks collecting dust on the shelves, perhaps old toys you have had since childhood, but are reluctant to give away?
Each of us, during the course of our lifetimes, amasses a great collection of stuff.
Recently, a post at Think Simple Now inspired me to take a good, long look at all the stuff I have collected over the years, and to think–do I need or want it?
Do I know of anyone or any organization who may actually be able to put to good use any of this “stuff” which I am not using?
What I have decided to do, is to create another thirty day challenge for myself!
Over the course of the next thirty days, I will set out to organize, get rid of, maximize the usefulness of, and toss out as much of my stuff as I possibly can do so with.
I hope no one minds if I refer to my project as they did on Think Simple Now–it is my “Stuff Reduction Program”, and I am basing it largely on the advice in that article.
The categories of things for me to sort through are:
Clothing
I have so many clothes, yet there are many I have never worn.
I have an entire wardrobe intended for a person working in an office, or some other professional workspace, including shoes I am not even sure I could walk in anymore.
I’ll have to sort through my clothes, putting them into piles according to whether I will keep them, throw them into the garbage, give them to charity, or give them to a friend who actually does live the life of an office worker, and would therefore truly appreciate having them.
Videos
We have a large bookcase whose shelves are lined with videos we have not watched in literally years.
Why do we hang onto these forgotten treasures?
Because someday, we may want to watch them.
We haven’t wanted to for at least ten years, but someday…
Out they go!
Books
I love books.
Often, when searching through yard sales, I have been fortunate enough to find them for mere pennies apiece.
Again, I keep them because someday, I may want to read them.
The fact that I have very little time to devote to this treasured practice does not occur to me at the time that I buy them.
They look like they may be a good read, and, in spite of the fact that I already have a bookshelf filled with unread novels at home, I buy them.
For pennies a piece, how can that be wrong?
Well, they need to be sorted at the very least.
Some are from arthors I truly enjoy reading, such as Lisa Gardner (my favorite novelist).
Some are from writers I have never heard of before purchasing the book.
all of them could be borrowed from the library, if I really wanted to read them.
I’ll sort through these as well, although none of them is in poor enough repair to require a “garbage” pile. It’ll be keep (Lisa Gardner), charity, give to friends.
Magazines
Happily, I have cancelled all of my magazine subscriptions some time ago, so this is not such a huge pile of Stuff.
However, I still habe several older artist magazines and some writing magazines.
All are still in good shape.
I won’t ever read them again.
I’ll just put these into a box to be given to charity along with the rest of this stuff.
Stuff In My Office
I used to jokingly tell my husband that I wasn’t sure what was living in my desk drawers, but I’ve fed it twice.
The thing is, there is so much stuff parked in there, plus the mess within my filing cabinet, that this could well be true.
Definitely part of this challenge will have to include de-cluttering what’s there, and optimizing the usefulness of the stuff I keep.
I have pens, pencils, art supplies, notebooks, loose leaf binders, pins, etc.
Most of the stuff in my desk drawers will be useful eventually. I just need to stop buying more of it until after what I already have in there has been used.
My Bedroom
I have lots of stuff in my bedroom
Lonely socks waiting for their perfect match to find their way home from the dryer, office supplies in drawers intended for other things, books I have read halfway through, CDs, DVDs, blank computer disks.
Plus the previously mentioned clothes.
So my bedroom will be the first room I tackle with this project.
That, and the bedroom closet.
The closet has enough stuff in it to be the scene of a horror novel. What’s in that dark, danp space, anyway?
Think Simple Now ruggests allowing no more than 3 hours for sorting through each category.
I will devote 1 hour per day to this project, two or three days per week (depending on the rest of my schedule).
If possible, I’ll finish half in the first thirty day challenge, but I’m thinking there may be a second challenge lurking in among all of that stuff!
What stuff do you have that you need to sort through? Any tips, ideas, or stories about dealing with stuff of your own? If so, why not share? comments and suggestions are always most welcome!
