Spring Cleaning, Part I

In a nutshell, this was what the plan was for the week, two steps per day:

get rid of:

• 10 articles of clothing
• 9 books or magazines
• 8 excess bathroom items
• 7 unloved DVDs, CDs, or tapes
• 6 expired fridge or pantry items
• 5 useless pieces of kitchenware
• 4 to do list items
• 3 regular chores (delegate if possible)
• 2 dreaded obligations on the calendar/schedule
• 1 time-hogging habit

I have done the first six. Some of the tasks were easy, but others were a challenge. I was stuck for the longest time at 9 articles of clothing. I know that it would have been easier to pull things out of the children's dressers, but I had resolved to sift through my own things. In the end, I got rid of 3 shirts, 2 skirts, a pair of socks, a pj top, a pj bottom, and a pair of jeans. I decided to count each sock as an item and forgive myself for not giving anything else up.

I had planned on the books being more difficult. Two weeks ago I recycled 8 years' worth of a magazine subscription. I didn't have any magazines to cull, so books would have to go. I ended up setting aside 19 of them for an upcoming rummage sale at my parish. Any unsold books will get donated to the library. It took less time than the clothes sorting!

Since I only needed to get rid of 8 things in the next step, I stopped counting at 11 old/expired bottles from the bathroom.

The old DVDs turned into a funny scene. I pulled out 7 right away, but when Robin saw the stack, he made me put Silverado and Laura Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life back. The lesson learned here is: hide the stack of videos you want to get rid of.

As for the expired fridge/pantry items, I was hoping I would have less than 6 because I'm trying to make sure we waste less food. Unfortunately, I had 7 that ended up in the trash. The leftover salad from Easter and a few hard boiled eggs were past their prime. Holiday food can be tricky.

Anyone who has been to my kitchen at Thanksgiving knows we use every gadget and pan in the house. Thankfully, there were some Halloween cups and some zoo cups that I was able to recycle to meet my quota of 5.

The rest of the Spring Cleaning and De-cluttering is planned for today and tomorrow. The children are off of school on Friday, and I want to get them out to enjoy the actual spring weather that is finally here. How about you? Have you worked on any of the challenge?