Decluttering Update

Since Thanksgiving, I have been working on unloading and organizing in my home. As I wrote in previous posts, I have moved some pretty horrid furniture out of here, as well as a pick-up load (at least) of old clothes, other textiles, decorative and other household items.

I do not know where all this boldness is coming from (though following Flylady at Flylady.net is helping), but after Christmas, I went into our walk-in closet and took out every single piece of clothing that does not fit me - all of it. I was shocked at how much came out, and I am not even one of those people who likes to shop all the time for herself. And that is an understatement. Since I also started a new eating plan on New Year's Day (lost 3 pounds as of this writing), I put all the displaced clothes that were nice enough to keep into one of those space bags (jumbo size). You know, it is the one where you seal it and suck all the air out of the bag with a vacuum cleaner until it turns into a what looks like a giant shrink-wrapped chuck roast.

I also got rid of some other things that were hanging out in the closet, and just between you and me, some of these things were not just on my side of the closet! Things like old cell phones and electric adapters whose "adaptees" have long departed, etc. On my side were old magazines (what was I thinking?), a lovely snowman table decoration who can bless someone else's table, and a lamp shade, to name a few.

Speaking of the "other side of the closet", I was able to appeal to my dear husband about the value of doing this to his clothes, too. "Think of it this way", I said. "You will not be getting rid of anything, but you can put your (too small) clothes into these space bags and keep them for when you lose weight. But in the meantime, you will be able to see and choose easily whatever it is you want to wear, because every single thing in there will fit you."

The hook was that he didn't have to part with anything (well, I did cull a couple of things that weren't even fit to wash cars with), but could now store his two large space bags on the floor of the closet. He agreed. All he had to do was go through there and pull out the stuff, throw it on the bed, and he was done. But he did go the further step and arranged what was left by putting all his pants in the front, then shirts, etc. and arranged them by color, as I have always done with mine.

After I turned his bags of clothes into two flank steaks (since I had used the only chuck roast sized bag), and stored them, I announced the final part of the process, which of course is voluntary on his part. What I plan to do is leave my too-small clothes in the bag for several months to a year. If, after that time I am still too big to fit into them, out they go! But, if, at that time, my current boat sails and circus tents are way too roomy for me, then ha, ha, out they go!!!!!!!! Because I will not keep them as an exit strategy and good excuse to indulge in gluttonous behavior again.

Unbelievably, my dear husband said he will do the same thing. Quite a Christmas miracle, eh?

Other victories this last week included the fact that my darling daughter went through the under-eave storage area and cleaned that out, which included all those receipts and tax-related papers that stretched back to 1981. She got rid of a lot of other stuff too, but made me promise not to look. I also went through my desk and have started on going through the Christmas boxes and other knick knacks. Time to give someone else a chance to enjoy some of these extras.

My efforts, and this report, I hope, are to be continued.....