The Purge

The Great Purge of 2009 continues. But, I am finally starting to feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been carefully keeping an inventory of all the things we own and what we have been willing, able, and dying to get rid of. It's sometimes frightening, shocking, and a little sickening to think that we own so many thousands of things that we don't even know what they all are. Many things have been sold, many things have been donated, and many many things have been given away or sent to people who will give them good homes. This little notebook contains all my purge secrets and, in the spirit of reduce/reuse/recycle it's really an old calendar from 2007 that I never got around to using as a calendar. My goal has been to get rid of 5 things every week. Many weeks have seen the departure of way more than 5 things. I haven't yet reached the point of a zero-sum household but it's out there. This week, I feel like I can see that the tide has shifted because I had to actively go looking for the things that needed to go and they all turned out to be bits of random things: a box of straight pins that are too small for me to sew with, push pins that I've had about 17 years, two cans of spray paint, a half-used bottle of febreze, a random little bag of jewelry I don't like and never wear, some of my massive collection of stationary, and three balls of "yarn" I made from old t-shirts.