Thursday, May 4,^, 2012

In the last couple of months, I have been reading about minimalism, which is living using only the things you need.  And while I don’t think I could ever go all the way there, I have been getting rid of a lot of things lately and it is a very freeing thing.  So I will go thru some of the processes that I have been using to rid myself of excess “stuff”. 

Clothing:  I sorted thru my clothing and I am not done with this yet, I think it will be an ongoing process.  But the criteria that I am using is this:

1)  Do I wear it and……

2)  Do I love it and does it make me feel good when I wear it? If so I keep.

3)  Is it stained or have any holes? Get rid of – or one shirt I really like and so I decided to try and get the stain out, which I am doing today with my laundry.  If I can’t get the stain out, I will throw it out.

4)  How many of one color do I need?  I found I had a lot of black and white t-shirts!  So I got rid of ones that were stained or didn’t fit well and kept a couple of each color.

5)  What reason am I holding on to something?  I have one shirt that I really don’t like and only wear one time a year…..Is it really worth keeping?  Nope –as I write this I can’t figure out why I kept it so I am going to get rid of it now!  My sister gave it to me and while it might be her taste, it isn’t mine!

After I went through my clothes(which I now realize I need to do more of) it was on to the kids.  We went through and I would ask them if they really liked an item or not, or if they wore it or not.  We tried on a lot of clothes and it is amazing how many clothes we got rid of and the good thing is, it is now rummage sale season and when I go to sales, I know just what each child needs – which in all reality is – not much.

Now I just have to figure out the best way to get rid of these clothes!  I did list a bunch of items on ebay.  Now in the past I really have not had much luck with ebay, but I am trying it once again.  I started most items out at 99 cents, so we will see how it goes.

Today is a short day, with me closing my daycare early so that I can take my daughter to dance recital dress rehearsal, so the only thing I am going to try and get done today is a menu for next week.