24 plates, 12 bowls, and 30 plus glasses too many

In my continued effort to get rid of things that I don't need/use, I'm donating most of my dishes, silverware, and glassware to a local artist-in-residence group here in Spartanburg, SC. Hub-Culture is a non-profit group that consists of The Hub City Writer's Project, and Hub-Bub. Hub-Bub in itself is an artist in residence, a gallery, and a concert hall. It's basically the epicenter of all things culture in Spartanburg. Anyway, they have one of the longest, comprehensive residence programs in the nation. I'm so lucky to live in a city with so much going on. Please do check out their website, and if you are in the area do come by to a concert or see the gallery. You will be glad you did.

Craig and the Dollar Store

Everyone already knows about craigslist.com, right? I have heard some horror stories about being swindled, but I have sold some stuff on there, and my roommate bought a piano! I hope that it becomes a great resource in my down-sizing. I have posted my luggage set that is almost like new because I have three additional pieces that are just fine- why do I need so much? If that does well I may sell some other stuff. I don't really have enough stuff to sell to warrant a yard sale, so this could turn out to be a great option. I will keep you updated.

I read online today that there is a couple who tried to only make purchases at their local Dollar Store for one month- they cheated quite a bit, and I'm not entirely sure if it has anything to do with what I'm doing, you be the judge. Check it out

Some exciting news, I've put a deposit on a new apartment and I will be living on my own again- more on the new place later.

Letting Go

I gave up a large chunk of my wardrobe yesterday. I made piles of clothes to give away and then for the past week or so left them in my room and put off giving them away in fear of something- what I don't know- surely not nakedness I still have plenty of clothes. Perhaps I was scared of giving away something that I would want to wear in a month. This could still happen but now there is nothing I can do about that, and it kinda feels good. My load is getting lighter, and just in time for a move in September. My roomie is moving to California and I'm getting a one bedroom with not a lot of storage- which ironically is great. Who needs so much stuff? I'm becoming more and more anti stuff as this process goes on. The next thing I'm going to tackle is the kitchen, which is going to be hard because I love kitchen stuff. We will see how that goes.

In the meantime, I wanted to reccomend that if you decide to give away stuff, don't only think about the Salvation Army or Goodwill as places to donate. Of course they are great places to donate to, but I found that a small crisis center here in Spartanburg really needed some mens clothes so I decided to give to them instead of the normal GoodWill drop off. Check your local area's needs- maybe you'll find a place that you can really help.

Don't be afraid of the delete button

In a continued effort to downsize, I cleaned out the most cluttered area of my life. My EMAIL. I'm one of those save every email "just in case" kind of people, and well, I have faced facts and come to understand that I don't need to save every email.
I deleted or archived all of my personal and professional emails today and it felt so good. Really, it was so nice to see a mailbox that wasn't full.
I recommend cleaning out your email soon.

I am going to give a large bag of clothes to Safe Homes here is Spartanburg tomorrow. I'll fill you in on their operation later.

Clothing for a family of four?

Last night I started what I know now will be a long hard battle. Getting rid of stuff. I decided to tackle the biggest monster first- clothes. Who knew I was a such a clothes horse? I went through my clothing and came away with one large garbage bag full of t-shirts, shorts, and even a pair of shoes to give away to charity. I was still left with three drawers of clothes, 10 t-shirts, four pairs of jeans, and five collared shirts. That plus two hampers full of clothes that need to be washed.

After everything is clean, I have to decide how many t-shirts, pants, etc. I am going to keep. What is reasonable? Two pairs of jeans enough? I guess "enough" would be one pair, or none at all even. This is all very confusing...what I need and what I want are so blurred I can't decipher the two.

I will say that it feels good to have even downsized a little so far- getting rid of some clothes I never wear I found the chap stick I thought was lost and gone forever. I also made about $2 in all the change I found in various pockets. This is going to be a long processes but I think a rewarding one as well.

How about 100 items per room?

I had my first stumbling block today in my effort to downsize. I almost purchased so kitchen gadgets, a new silverware set, and a thick cutting block. I'm so glad that I decided to downsize, because that is the only think that kept me from making those purchases.
While I'm talking about kitchen stuff, that makes me think- does downsizing to 100 personal items include things like plates, cups, pots and pans? To start out with, I think I'll focus on just things that I use, not things that my roommate and I both use.

This is going to be even harder than I thought.

Do I really need 7 pairs of jeans?

So I read this article in Time, and I've been thinking about doing something like it, and have come up with some options.
1) count all the things that are in my posession to see what I'm dealing with and then downsize.
2) get rid of any article of clothing that I haven't worn in the past two months, minus "winter wear" and then go through other belongings that haven't been used in the past 6 months and get rid of them.
3) go through my belongings and keep 100 things, trash, give away, sell the rest.
4) get rid of everything except a weeks worth of clothes, all my books, and a shoe box full of things that mean something to me.

What I'd like to do is #4, but I think realistically I'll be doing something like #2 and #3. I'll keep you updated as it goes along. Whenever I move again it will be so much easier, and my room won't be overrun by stuff. Anyone want to take the journey with me?