5 Things Again - Day 3 and Day 4

Got a little behind...but will catch up...

Man...the last time we did this, we did a really good job!  Either that or I'm not in the purging spirit yet.

This soap dispenser is broken and has been hiding under a sink for a year or so...

5 Things Again - Day 2

Getting rid of just a few things a day is the best way to organize and minimize...it feels very manageable.  Continuing on, cleaned out under the bathroom sink (vacuumed and everything!):

5 Things Again - Day 1

I can't help it...when I feel a little stressed, it makes me feel better to get rid of stuff.  And I like to put it on here so I can go back and look at all the stuff and feel good all over again!  It makes me feel productive and less weighted down.

Organized a bathroom cabinet tonight:

Goal is to purge something every day until 4th of July...

5 Things Part 2 - The rest of it

Sold these on Craigslist last week...and there are 8 of each, which equals 24:

I feel lighter already!

My other goal for the month is to do a project each week for the last 2 weeks of the month...

5 Things Part 2 - Days 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10

Still a day behind, but making progress.  I love looking in a sock drawer and not seeing any stragglers!

• Day 6:  2 pairs of old underwear and 3 mismatching songs
• Day 7:  3 tupperware lids that no longer have matching bottoms, a belt thingy that I broke, and a wooden pallet that has been in our garage for a year that I gave away on Craigslist
• Day 8:  more pajama pants, a jacket from Jay, my 8-yr-old office plant that is sadly diseased, lotion that smells like baby wipes (I know that's only 4 but I feel like the DVDs make up for it)
• Day 9 and 10:  lots and lots of DVDs from Jay

Purging...Again

The plan was to get rid of 5 things a day again for the first 2 weeks in February, and then complete a project each week the last 2 weeks.  Given it's February 6, I have some catching up to do.

Day 1:  A jar of pasta (this pasta is at least 1.5 years old because Jay has been gluten free that long now) and does not fit anywhere except on top of our fridge (I need shorter containers); a plant that a coworker gave me that I apparently can't take care of (I'm giving it back to another coworker); a french press that we brought back from Italy almost 6 years ago and have never used; a thing that I don't know what it is; and a stir fry thingy we've never used.

Days 2, 3, and 4:  10 yr old printer via Craigslist; some of Jay's pajama pants (for a guy who just sleeps in his underwear, he has a ton of PJs); some other various clothing; some reusable bags.

Day 5:  Some cooking utensils, because how many spatulas does one person really need?

I'm still 1 day behind but that's ok.

After my month+ of purging in October and November, I kind of missed it.  It helped focus me on simplifying, keeping our house orderly (even the hidden parts), and not wanting to bring anything else in.  This time around, it took me awhile to get back into the swing of it - the first 5 items were hard.  How quickly I became attached to things again!

But honestly, I don't remember any of the items (200+) that we got rid of a few months ago, meaning I don't miss a single thing.  And I really appreciate that we can open drawers now without the drawer getting stuck on the contents because we have 2 of everything (can openers, peelers...).  So hopefully I'll find more breathing room in this 2 week mini purge.

I love...lamp

After more than a month of purging and minimizing the junk in our house, I'm motivated to organize and finish up some spaces in our house.  First up: the guest room.

Jay stole our old guest room lamps to put in the studio, so I've been hunting for their replacements.  Quality lamps are surprisingly lacking on Craigslist...but my persistance once again paid off!

I found these fun artichoke lamps weeks ago...$175 for the pair. Which is steep for Craigslist.  I figured I'd wait them out until they came under $100, which didn't take long...they obviously wanted to sell.  We got them for $75.

These suckers are large and made out of metal (ie heavy).  A close-up of the artichoke in full glory:

I mean really...how awesome is that!  And with a $15 shade from Marshall's:

I was thinking I was going to have to figure out how to fit this thing with a harp, but my brilliant mother suggested just setting the shade on top of the weird glass dome thingy.  Done.  I also thought I might paint them, but I kind of love the unexpected bright blue.

For about $105 all-in (which lamp shoppers know is a great price - 1 shade can cost more than that!), we have 2 really fun, really nice new lamps for our guest room!

So in addition to the marble Craigslist lamps, the 4 brass lamps I found at 2 garage sales while on a run, and free lamps from parents, I think we are officially lamped out in this house.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.)

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.

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?!?

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.

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).

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.

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.)