Lost in the Bookshelf

One of those books you get at the airport when you are bored and forgot to bring one from home.

I read it, but didn't care much for the story. No, it isn't the same story as the Bill Murry movie. No offense Nicole Mones. Just not my style.

I will never read it again. Not to mention that somewhere it picked up a smear of Yuck on it. No clue what the Yuck is.

Bye Bye Bookie!

Design Book

In college my teacher was all nuts about a designer needing to change the world with their design, with each design. Each thing you created needed to have a message somewhere for something beyond just being good design and accomplishing what the design was supposed to do.

He also thought that freelance was always the way to go, but I disagreed. I wanted to be part of a company. Have a nice work place, a nice group of people to work with, health insurance, a desk and some set work hours. It just felt more secure to me.

But one of our text books was about having your design make a statement besides just the original concept. I think this was more about rock band posters or things like that. I wound up having an affinity for magazine layout and logo design. I can hardly change the world from an InDesign template and some putzing around in Illustrator.

I never really did agree with some of his idea, and I confess, I was not all that interested in reading the book. It was a class requirement to purchase, but never required to actually read. Other than skimming here and there, I barely opened the cover.

I always said I would read the book later, but find myself totally uninterested now.

So goodbye Book.

Gross Squirt Gun

I got this back in 2005 as a joke with a friend.

Since then, it has been puked on by cats, covered in I don't even wanna know in the bottom of a suitcase for a long time. The suitcase was left open and the cats used it as a bed for a while, until I guess someone had an upset tummy.

It only survived moves because it was hidden in said suitcase. It lived in a garage in CA for a long time in that suitcase.

So, goodbye gross old squirt gun. While you may still work, I am not going to scrape the cat puke off of you to bother using you.

The Ancient Art of HTML

A book from when I was first learning HTML back in 1998.

Now there are programs that do it for you, and while it is good to know how to get in there and tweak things, these methods and teachings are rather outdated.

So goodbye outdated book of HTML!

The Bra with the Wrinkle

One of the nursing bras I got while pregnant with my son. I washed it and it got a wrinkle in one of the pads. Not only does the wrinkle irritate my skin and feel funny, but it looks weird too from under a shirt. Nothing I did made the wrinkle go away!

I am sad about this loss, because I liked these bras, even after Liam had a booby boycott and stopped nursing. They were comfy and fit well and did their intended job with style, grace and support. It may not look like much in the picture, but this was a good bra.

Bye Bye Bra!

Crochet Blanket Parts

I got these from a garage sale in CA when I moved back after college. I bought a bag full of yarn and these were in there. They are some eye blinding colors and I will never use them and I no longer have the time to take apart the pieces to save the yarn.

Goodbye old yarn things!

VHS Movie

Sorry I missed a day! Yesterday just got out of hand in the busy factor, so I am making it up today. 

Out of date media... And not even the start of the series anyways.

This has survived too many moves to count. 

Goodbye old VHS tape!

Old Purse

This bag served me well. Bought in 2005, it lived as my one and only purse like device until its untimely death in 2007. I held it together with staples, rapid sewing jobs, a metal clip and I think I even used safety pins at one point.

Since 2007 it has been living in my closet. It survived 5 moves.

Goodbye!

Polaroid Mini Camera Thinggie

This piece of clutter was bought for me back in 2000 by an ex of mine.

It has been filmless, unused and collecting dust through 9 moves.

Goodbye!

Glitter Snow Globe

The first thing that I am getting rid of...

A low on water, glitter filled picture snow globe.

This lovely item has been in my stuff for almost 5 years now, I forget who gave it to me, but I think it was from a Christmas stocking.

I have never put a picture in it, nor cared to display it anywhere. It has been carted from California, to another house in California, to Utah and then to Oregon. Somehow it survived 6 moves.

It has a little slot in the bottom to put a picture in the plastic gap in the middle of it. 

It is time to go.

Tomorrow!

The project starts tomorrow!

Decisions:

• No Free Box until summer, it all goes to the Goodwill or gets packed up in the attic for a future yard sale.
• Clothing will not count individually. I have so much to get rid of, 10 items will count as one day's worth of stuff.
• Trash does not count.
• If it is Dan's, he has to agree to let it go. Unless it is clearly trash and he is being unreasonable. 

So there you have it.

Tomorrow comes the pictures of the first thing to go!

Yay!

Getting Ready

As the new year approaches and the start of my little project comes closer I am getting ready for it in odd ways.

While I debated just gathering things now to get rid of, I decided that it would have more impact if I chose each one daily instead of trying to plan ahead.

I decided that a "Free" Box on the curb might not be the best idea, so I will just put together a box to go to the Goodwill every week.

Even if a Free box might get me some publicity... It is still in the thoughts for maybe some of the stuff with a little bit of value to it. But how to protect it from the Portland rain?

Mostly it is the rain idea that keeps me from wanting to put a box on the curb.

I don't want to end up with a box of soggy goods that now are not even able to be donated to the Goodwill.

Ugh... decisions.

Beginnings

I started this blog with one goal, to declutter my home and make my life more simple.

My plan is, starting on January 1st, 2011 to throw away or give away one thing a day that currently is taking up space in my home.

My husband and I just moved into a new house with our 6 month old son and as I was looking at all the boxes piled up in the garage, all the STUFF we have between the two of us, I wanted to try and cut that back.

We both are pack rats, we both hold onto things for too long.

I think he has a harder time letting go of stuff than I do. Just in the 3 days we have lived here so far I have thrown some stuff away and he pulls it from the trash and asks "Why is this in the trash?"

The broken this, the old and nasty that... Isn't it obvious?

I think this journey will start off easy and become harder and harder as I cut down on the THINGS.

I am still debating some concepts as well. If I clean out my clothes, does each item count for the one a day or should it be shirts one day and pants the next? How do I get rid of things that technically are my husbands, but are no longer good. He has things like dried up old paint from highschool that hung out in our art closet for a year. But in that year, I never saw him paint, or even attempt to paint, but when I pointed out that it was bad after I tried to use it when I was painting a light switch cover for my son's room, he said "it's still good, I can make it work again" but never did.


Of course I will not remove anything of his that has clear sentimental value, but really... Old paint?

But before I get to his things, I have my own stuff to get rid of!

Onto other questions, should I put it in a covered box on the curb with a "Free" sign? Or just pile it into a bin and drop it at the Goodwill once a week?

How do I let go of craft project items I have hung onto for years now and carted from house to house to apartment and across three states? I keep meaning to DO something with them. Will this make me use them, but then what to DO with the finished craft?

Does it count as decluttering when I throw out something that technically is trash and useless (even though I have held onto it for years...) ?

Should I count outgrown baby clothes that I do not want to save for a potential sibling? 

And my biggest worry... Some things that I need to be rid of were once gifts from other people. Do I worry about them reading my blog and perhaps seeing something they gave me years ago in my Give Away box?  I do want to photograph each thing that I am getting rid of so I can mark my journey.

I will just have to solve all these problems by the first of the year and begin the process of getting rid of STUFF.

Here's to beginnings! May the Clutter be gone!