I keep forgetting to tell you about a new project that Husband, Child and I started! I read about the 10 Things Challenge on Simple. Organized. Life. and we were inspired to try a 10 things challenge of our own.
We want to try to get rid of 10 items (at least) each week for a year (at least). We have too much stuff cluttering up our life and our home. Stuff that has no use for us anymore and adds absolutely no value to our lives.
Before we moved into our house we lived in a 2-room basement suite while we saved money to buy a house. It was TINY! So when we first moved into our house it seemed really empty because we hardly had any stuff.
Not so today. In 10 years we totally expanded to fill up every nook and cranny. All of that untouched space is just ... gone.
Husband, Child and I have committed to finding 10 things (minimum) in our house each week to give away, donate or sell. Some items might have to be thrown away if they're not in good condition, but I would prefer it if someone else can actually get some use from our things. These are items we no longer have a need for, but I don't want to see a bunch of stuff just go to a landfill.
Anyway, we've been working on our new project for 3 weeks now, and we've eliminted TONS of stuff already from our house. So far we've exceeded the 10 item minimum each week — and it was practically effortless!
Week one
The first week we concentrated on getting rid of books we no longer needed, but in our zeal we kind of extended our purge to DVDs, board games, puzzles and toys.
We donated most of the toys and games to the before- and after-school care program at Child's school and we sold the books and DVDs to a used bookstore. We ended up parting with 160 books and 65 DVDs!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Project time!: 10 things challenge
Posted by Andi at 5:39 PM
Labels: 10 things challenge, projects
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5 comments:
Wow and good on you!
I hear every word you said, too. Same thing here. I laugh now when I think about how Zen I was "going" to live when I first moved here.
Very inspirational and here's to 50 more good purging weeks.
P.S. To keep things out of the landfill, try freecycle.org. Someone near you might be looking for a stuffed panda bear in an easter basket garlanded with pumpkin lights. :p
Oops, forty-nine more good purging weeks, that is.
Thanks for the encouragement. And thanks for the great idea - I never would have thought of freecycle.org, but it's perfect!
I wish I could get my husband and kids to join in with this - I'v ebeen purging like crazy since we first started to think about moving but they keep bringing more stuff in faster than I can throw stuff out
I like to watch that show Hoarders and then obsessively clean my house. I love the ten things idea but there is no way my husband (with his hoarding tendencies) would get on board with it. And honestly, I think I'd even have trouble coming up with 520 things to get rid of! Of course, I have done several major purges in the past 2 years, so we're already somewhat pared down.
My word is PatShao, which happens to be the name of the half-Irish, half-Chinese kid I went to school with. Not really. ;-)
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