Nothing motivates you quite like publicly declaring you’ll get rid of 100 things. Even though our move isn’t until mid-December, we went room by room and pared down anything we don’t love, need, or use. The mantra while we worked: no mercy. There’s nothing worse than packing, moving, and unpacking things that aren’t worth the time or space they consume in the new place.
Here’s the office pile we decided to let go of:
Then we tackled the kitchen (Clara helped):
Here’s the kitchen pile headed out the door (there were also several baskets and towels on the floor):
And the den’s goodbye pile (don’t worry about the board games—we had duplicates, so we kept one of each):
Our garage-to-go pile:
Our basement done-zo pile:
And the big bedroom buh-bye pile (the baby and the dog are staying, of course):
Here’s the full list of items we purged:
- 11 pairs of shoes (10 mine, 1 John’s)
- 36 books (including 10 cookbooks)
- 10 videotapes & DVDs
- 1 alarm clock
- 1 computer mouse
- Countless padded envelopes & mailing tubes from our old online print shop
- 6 board games (we had duplicates, so we kept one of each)
- 2 yoga mats
- 1 radio
- 1 stocking
- 2 faux pumpkins
- 1 lamp
- 4 pillows
- 1 mirror
- 5 frames
- 54 items of clothing (coats, hats, ties, tees, jeans, shirts, socks, etc.)
- 4 plastic plates
- 6 ceramic plates
- 1 power screwdriver
- 4 outdoor chairs
- 2 welcome mats
- 1 rug
- 2 baskets of faux plants (they lived in our not-sunny-enough basement)
- 1 floor lamp
- 4 plant pots
- 6 garden hooks
- 1 stencil
- 1 frisbee
- 4 old quarts of paint
- 2 buckets
- 2 metal tins (we replaced them with a new diaper & wipe disposal system—more on that soon)
- 1 sprinkler
- 1 trash can
- 1 fabric basket
- 1 dark wicker basket
- 5 bath towels
- 1 nursing cover
- 8 baby toys & feeding supplies
- 4 glass cups
- 3 vases
- 4 pieces of faux fruit
- 8 wine glasses
- 8 mugs
- GRAND TOTAL: 222 items
It’s a little embarrassing to admit how much excess we were holding onto, but it feels incredible to have cleared it out. Everything is already out of the house—donated or sold. We even held an impromptu moving sale this weekend while we still had momentum and that no-mercy attitude. We were worried that if items sat around, we might change our minds and hang on to things we don’t need. And, yes, I do have the patience of a five-year-old when it comes to getting things done.
Have you been purging lately? Did you find any problem areas in your home? We expected to let go of a lot of books and clothing, but we were surprised at how many unused kitchen items we’d been keeping—many of which we’d never used even once.