Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Day 36 - 5 things...and lessons learned

When I started, I decided Thanksgiving would be my end date.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so this will be my last day of "5 things a day" purging, although we could probably keep going until Christmas without too much difficulty.  Two more pairs of shoes, a WM jacket I've never worn, a hard hat that Jay has had in the bottom of his closet for years, and a baseball:


In the past 36 days, we've gotten rid of around 200 items from our house.  That's a lot of stuff, and the sad thing is you would never know it's missing (Jay says he still can't really tell a difference).  Here are 5 things I've learned in the process:

  1. We all have a little hoarder in us.  I was surprised at all the stuff we held on to "just in case."  This stuff just takes up space...that's it.
  2. We have to be more mindful shoppers.  I was surprised at how many multiples we had of things. Those were easy things to toss for me because I knew that I legitimately don't need the extras.  Even with something like shoes, I tossed a few pairs easily because I have other pairs that are so similar and could be worn in the exact same situations.  I also feel like such a naive consumer...I buy things because someone else has convinced me I need it and not because I actually do.
  3. We have to be more mindful gift givers.  A lot of things I tossed were gifts...which was hard.  I've held on to a lot of these things only because they were gifts, and I know that other people have done the same with things I've given them.  Especially with Christmas coming up, I want the gifts I give to be meaningful and actually add value to someone's life.
  4. Organizing is just planned hoarding.  I've been reading minimalist blogs at work for inspiration and spending less time on Craigslist (oh, how I love Craigslist).  I read something like that on one of them, and that really resonated with me because I really like organization...things being all lined up...maximizing the use of space...matching containers.  A lot of areas in our house I would attack during the last month, I would think about how much better they would feel if I just organized them better as opposed to clearing them out.  So in this process, I had to un-program that idea and instead just let go of things.
  5. We need a lot less than what we have.
I don't think I'll continue to get rid of 5 things a day - I'll slow my pace a bit.  But there are still so many things in our house that we don't use and someone else might actually want and use, I feel like we have to keep working to minimize our things and be diligent not to buy things we don't need.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Day 35 - 5 things

Jay suggested going through our pantry.  I was thinking our pantry was pretty lean...but of course it was easy to find stuff to toss.


That Nesquik expired in 2009...whoops.  I'm pretty sure I got it at one of the MBA conferences I went to my first year of business school.  The raisins expired in 2010, and the tortilla crumbs expired earlier this year.

The syrup is getting tossed because we bought actual maple syrup (ie not sugar with some maple flavor), and the hot chocolate is getting tossed because we have 2 other mixes and Jay doesn't like this particular one.

Lesson learned:  We have excess EVERYWHERE.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Day 33 and 34 - 5 things

This is kind of cheating since my mom just gave me this over the weekend...  This is a stack of 18 t-shirts that my older sister and I have been saying are the other person's for a few years now, all the time just hanging out at my parents' house.  My mom made me actually go through them...definitely mine.  But instead of bringing them home and letting them hang out uselessly in a closet here, I'm just sending them straight to the giveaway pile.


Day 32 - 5 things

This is the last of the wine glass boxes from above the washer/dryer.  Plus 2 empty-ish containers.


So to recap, that was 13 empty boxes taking up most of the storage space in our laundry room.

Before:

And ta-da!


Friday, November 16, 2012

Day 31 - 5 things

Second verse.  Same as the first:


We have a lot of wine glass boxes.  There are still more up there.

As I've been clearing out the space, I started thinking about what I should put up there.  I realized that I shouldn't put anything up there!  Lack of storage was the motivation to start getting rid of 5 things a day...so there you go...now we have storage.

Oh (and more for myself so I know what our wine glasses are):
- big box was for 6 more Bordeaux glasses
- Os were for Chardonnay and Cab/Merlot

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Day 30 - 5 things

This is one of those funny "just in case" things I knew we'd get to eventually in the 5 things challenge:


What you see in that picture is the majority of storage space available in our laundry room.  75% of it is taken up by empty boxes that wine glasses came in!  Well and that Riedel box on the bottom shelf that actually held a decanter.   I think we always kept them "just in case" we moved again because it would be a lot easier to pack all the glasses back in their original boxes.  These were all wedding gifts, so we've had the boxes for 5 1/2 years, and they've only had to move once.  (Sidenote:  We got A LOT of stemware as wedding gifts.  I think that is people telling us we're classy and sociable, right? Right?  Not alcoholics?)

Here are the first 5 that went into our recycling container (decanter box, 2 boxes for Bordeaux glasses, 2 boxes for Sauvignon Blanc glasses):


And there's more where that came from!  (Possible foreshadowing for tomorrow.)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Day 29 - 5 things

Tonight I decided to do another pass in our bathroom.  Considering I've already hit the bathroom 5 days, it was much harder this time around (progress!).  Also, I literally have products lined up by the sink to remind me to USE THEM (use it or lose it!), but I should probably set a date limit of when I'm just going to throw them out.

I still managed to scrounge up a broken running watch, a running watch with a dead battery (I have multiple...so I picked one that I told myself I'd get a new battery for), some nearly empty toiletry boxes, and these little strips of soap to keep in your purse for times when a bathroom doesn't have soap (I don't keep these in my purse any longer because one time I forgot what they were and put one in my mouth thinking it was one of those Listerine breath strip things...):


Isn't it crazy that none of these things are useful to us or add any value to our lives, yet we keep stuff like this all the time?!

And since 2 of those things are technically trash and I decided trash shouldn't really count, I got rid of 2 more pairs of shoes:



The pink ones were some of my faves (fun brand called Irregular Choice), but if you look too closely, I should probably be embarrassed to wear them (pretty sure that's mold?).  So out they went.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Day 28 - 5 things

Today I cleaned out an area I'm afraid of: under the kitchen sink.  I'm deathly afraid of this area because it just seems like there will be roaches under there, and I am so so very afraid of roaches.

So today we have a box of Brita water filter refills with 1 left (we haven't had a Brita water filter since we lived in our apartment 3 years ago), a box of roach baits that was left behind from the previous homeowner (and we have an exterminator who puts baits out when needed), a kitchen glove that lost its partner to my staining activities, and then some trash that had found its way under there.


I also removed all the grocery plastic bags that were taking over and put them with the other bags we use for puppy poo, and also found some Swiffer wet jet refills (!!) and put them with the Swiffer.  Which just leaves the essentials, and it doesn't look nearly as scary down there.  As in, I might actually paint it (I wrote about unfinished project month here and deciding I should finish painting the inside of the kitchen cabinets...and this was one of 3 scary cabinets I STILL didn't paint the inside).  See here is the less scary after:


Moral of today's story:  less stuff = less scary.

Also!! I gave a pizza cutter and garden gloves to one of my co-workers and tried really hard to give Jay's bright green shoes away.  Doesn't that feel so communal or something?!?

Monday, November 12, 2012

Day 27 - 5 things

I asked Jay what I should get rid of today, and he suggested shoes.  Oh boy do we have some shoes...it might be one of the only things we "collect" (I just counted mine and have over 60 pairs...but in my defense, a lot of them were free!!!!).  

I held up a pair of Reeboks and a pair of Pumas to him, and said I should only keep one since they were so similar - which one?  He went back and forth, and finally told me he was 50/50 on which I should keep.  In other words, I have 2 pairs of shoes that are so incredibly similar, we couldn't decide which to keep and which to toss (I ended up keeping the Pumas).  He pointed out that is exactly why we have to get rid of one:


Jay tossed in 3 pair:  Cole Haan driving shoes he's never worn, a pair from Zara, and some awesome green Nike ID high tops that he isn't bold enough to wear.  I also tossed in my Birkenstocks...oh how I loved my Birkenstocks in the day (I had some sandals in addition to these clogs).


In addition to all the things we've been getting rid of, I've also adopted a "use it or lose it" mentality.  So in addition to the daily 5 things, I've been burning candles, using lotions and weird flavors of toothpaste, and putting other random things to use that have been hidden away in drawers.  So it actually feels like we've purged a lot more than 135+ items.  With just over a week to go, I finally feel like there are fewer unused items lurking in drawers.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Day 26 - 5 things

I've been reading minimalist blogs for inspiration as I minimize.  A few years ago there was a minimalist guy who decided he was going to live with only 100 things, so then there was this big fad to count your things and try to minimize from there.

I have no intention of actually being a minimalist, but I did count the things in my closet.  Or at least half my closet.  Or more like half of the hanging space in my closet.  So really only shirts and sweaters (but only the sweaters that hang...others are folded on a shelf).  So I didn't count pants, skirts, dresses, shoes, socks, running shorts...  But anyways, I counted:  134.  Hmmm.

So I guess I lied when I said I keep a "lean-and-mean" closet.  But that being said, I decided to get rid of a few things today.  And only 2 items came from the hanging half of the closet that I counted to be 134...so I didn't make much of a dent in that number:


Two pairs of khakis (I have an abundance from my Target days), some navy pants I got in New York a really long time, a Rice MBA polo that I'VE NEVER WORN, and my comfy ugly sweater (which my mom tried to get me to get rid of a few years ago, but at the time I would always wear this for late night studying - ie everyday).

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Day 25 - 5 things

Strangely, this was one of the harder things to get rid of:


Those are paint samples from choosing a color for our living room, plus some craft paints from various projects over the years.  I think for crafty people, it's hard to let go of stuff like this because you might come up with a craft that would need them!  And I like the IDEA of painting...but I am not a painter.

I ended up posting in the free section of Craigslist because I liked the idea of some local artist or student actually putting my old paint that has been sitting untouched for well over a year to good use.  The first email (I got multiple) encouraged me that this is a much more productive use for my unused items:
"I am an artist (and a freegan), so this is a great find. When can i pick up?"

I do love a good freegan.  Also note, that is 14 items!

We also took the first official trip to Goodwill today to permanently remove many of our collected items from our house.  I asked Jay if he could tell the difference in our house from all the things we've been purging.  I could tell he wanted to say yes...but not really.  This is very telling because 1) we don't even notice all this stuff is gone (ie we never needed it), and 2) we have more work to do.

Day 24 - 5 things

Into the kitchen!

Two pizza slicers (because we have 3), a peeler (because we have 2), a baller thingy that I will return to my mother and I'm not really counting as part of the 5, and 2 things that I don't know what they go with (haven't needed them for the 2 years they've been sitting in the drawer).  And the drawer this was all in finally closes easily!

I told one of my co-workers I was doing this, and she asked if I would send her pics of any kitchen stuff, so she actually gets one of the pizza rollers...awesome.

I had the thought about the peeler that there will probably be a time in life that I will wish I had 2 peelers...it's those "just in case" thoughts that make getting rid of things harder.  But this was a relatively quick and easy drawer to attack.


Thursday, November 08, 2012

Day 23 - 5 things

Continuing from yesterday in the closet, I cleaned out my purse and running sock bins.  I know this is more than 5 items, but I just had so many running socks!  I left 13 pairs in the bin, plus returned a few of Jay's to his drawer.  And trust me, I don't run 13 times before doing laundry...I am apparently a hoarder of running socks.

I had cleaned the purses out not too long ago, so I mainly just went through them and cleaned out all the trash and returned all the pens, ponytail holders, and chapsticks to more logical locations.  The one I did purge was a gift from Jay when he went to Africa 4 years ago, which made it really hard because there is a sentimental attachment to it.  But I have a lot of purses, and I've never actually used this one.  I also hand-washed a purse I still like but was just looking dirty so that I will actually use it again.

(The other 2 items were a bracelet and measuring tape found in purses.)

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Day 22 - 5 things

Today I hit the t-shirt bin in my closet.  I haven't really hit my closet hard, because I honestly keep a fairly lean-and-mean closet.

I purged 2 sleeveless running shirts because I prefer my assortment of lululemon running t-shirts, 2 long-sleeve running shirts that I've had for probably close to 10 years, and a vintage T that started its life at Goodwill (circle of life, people).  So I'm left with 2 long-sleeve t-shirts, 1 long-sleeve running t-shirt (because I mean really...how many do you need in Texas?), about 5 t-shirts, 1 running tank, 2 yoga tanks, and 3 running t-shirts in my shirt bin.


Also, a few reflections as I only have 2 weeks to go:
  • This is WAY TOO EASY.  Each day, it literally takes me 5-10 minutes to come up with 5 things that we can give away.  Once I got over it, I am not nearly as attached to stuff as I thought I was...which is a relief...though I've also realized the things I am attached to (and just avoiding because there are plenty of other things to get rid of).
  • We have so much stuff - as I'll post tomorrow, I have almost 20 pairs of running socks.  Who needs 20 pairs of running socks?!  It makes me think about all the time and money we've wasted on acquiring these things.
  • We need much less than we think we do.
  • I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about how all this stuff plays into religion, politics, consumerism, etc...but it's not organized enough in my head to verbalize.


Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Day 21 - 5 things

Jewelry was one that after the first clean out (Day 3 and Day 4), I knew I was going to revisit and show some tough love.  I had found an organization in Houston that donates dresses, jewelry, purses, etc to high school students going to prom, and that inspired me to try a little harder to be able to donate more before sending my items.  Thinking about who these things will go to makes me feel like I don't need a few dozen options for myself.


Monday, November 05, 2012

Day 19 and 20 - 5 things

This is kind of cheating to use for 2 days...but this IS more than 5 items per day, plus it took more effort.  Just like last year (when I was inspired by this TED talk), I scanned these 15 pictures while watching Harry Potter and then threw them away.  As in, into the trash.


Once I made the decision last year, throwing pictures away was very easy and very gratifying.  I've had these pictures of Jay's in a stack to scan and had just been putting it off, so this seemed like a good time.

And since they are now digital, I can easily upload:




Saturday, November 03, 2012

Day 17 and 18 - 5 things

You know how everyone gives out reusable bags these day?  We don't ever use them.  In fact, we like getting plastic bags so that we have something to put all our Great Dane-sized dog poop in and paper bags for Goodwill donations.  So I kept 5, tossed 5.


Also, some more DVD and CD donations for the library (Jay is a good cleaner-outer and not really a "stop at five" kind of guy).  Last year, we started seriously digitizing life but still have some DVDs and Jay's photos to go.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Day 15 and 16 - 5 things

All these items were hanging out in our laundry room.  A lot of things I had intentions of doing something with, and a lot of things we have repeats of (ie lots of gardening gloves!!).  And we are officially into the third give-away/Goodwill bag...