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.