Monday, February 29, 2016

The Year of Less: The Completion of My February Purge

Happy Leap Day and greetings from Chicago! I'm here for a couple of days for work, then head to Madison for a couple more days, and return to Minneapolis late on Thursday. It's going to be a whirlwind week but it's good to be traveling again as I enjoy conversing with clients and changing my schedule up!

As I mentioned in January, I spent the month of February focusing on getting rid of things in my house that I no longer need or use. My goal was to get rid of 435 items. When I started the month, I knew there were a lot of things I could get rid of but I ended up getting rid of more than I thought I would, mostly because I had soooo many books to get rid of. The total number of items that have left my house is 550 items! I actually ended up getting rid of a bit more than that as I stopped keeping track after I counted all of the books I would be getting rid of and had exceeded my goal.

I kept a detailed list, with columns totaling what was donated, sent to thred up or thrown away. I also kept track of what area of the house the items came from. The majority of my 550 items were books (272), but here is a breakdown of the rest of what I donated:

- 175 articles of clothing/jewelry/bags/shoes
- 46 items from my kitchen
- 23 office/organizational items
- 18 bathroom items
- 11 decor items
- 5 miscellaneous items

Of those 550 items, 392 were donated, 137 were thrown away, and 21 were sent to thred up.

Phil helped me load up my car with the 392 items I donated. I was shocked that we managed to fit 2 book cases, allll the bags of books, and 2 boxes of household goods/clothing into my little Honda Accord. Phil said it was a real-life game of tetrus. He wins boyfriend of the year for helping me schlep all those items to my card and bringing them to goodwill - and for standing in line at the post office on a Friday night to drop off my thred up bag while I sat in my packed car with a heavy box of donations on my lap.

It was surprisingly easy to get rid of all of these items. I thought I'd have a harder time going through my bookcases, but once I got going it wasn't very hard to determine what to keep and what to get rid of. This post on book riot really reflected how I approached my decision about what to keep or what to get rid of.

Truth be told, there's probably still more things I could get rid of as I didn't even get to the bins under my bed but I'll tackle that at another time over the next couple of months. In the mean time, I feel good about getting rid of a car load of stuff as it will make my next move so much easier!

20 comments:

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

Nicely done! I can't believe you got rid of so many books, although I totally understand the metrics of it. I just find it hard to get into that mindset. However, I know that sometimes once you are on a roll, it just keeps rolling!! I only found about a dozen books to get rid of, but also lent a couple books out which I do not expect to get back, so I am counting those!

My other big Feb/Mar project consists of figuring out the back yard. I built a wall a couple of weekends ago and will fill it with stuff, and I also want to build a few raised beds and work on getting the drip system all set up before Spring hits and I need to start planting!! That has actually taken more time than expected (of course)! My home project list just keeps getting longer and longer!

Charbelle said...

Way to go! I went through my book shelf on Saturday evening. I got quite a bit put away on Friday night. I hit the road running when I got home from California and I've been trying so hard since then to get my room to not look like it's been hit by a tornado! I finally took my Christmas presents to my SC nephews on Saturday!

Marlys said...

Wow, that was quite the purge! Good for you, and great of Phil to give you a hand!

Jeanie said...

Bravo. Good work. And knowing you, I'm sure you kept good track of what and value for taxes! And Phil DOES win Boyfriend of the Year for all that. You must feel so light right now!

Nora said...

Thanks for encouraging me to join you on this purge! I'm doing my recap tomorrow; will be interesting to see what exactly I got rid of as I kept a list each day of my purge items. Between this + the no-spend challenge, February was a bit more enjoyable than usual since I had some fun things to work towards each day!

San said...

Wow, way to go Lisa. You make me want to get on the "purging-bandwagon" right away... but I'll probably wait a little longer and call it a spring cleaning. I definitely want to start getting rid off stuff that I don't need (although I did a big purge last summer and before we moved, there is always more to get rid off!).

I bought something from ThredUp for the first time this weekend (after having the app on my phone for the longest time) and I am curious how everything is going to fit. I also plan to try and sell some of my stuff to them. Have you had good luck with that in the past?

Stephany said...

Woohoo! Sounds like this purge was so good for you! It must have felt amazing to get rid of all of that stuff. Fingers crossed you get a good payment from your ThredUp bag! This reminds me I still have a credit on the website from the last bag I sent and I need to use it soon!

Leigh said...

Nicely done! I'm impressed with how much stuff you were able to get rid of. I find that I go through spurts of getting rid of stuff and when I do, it's usually a couple bags or diaper boxes full

Carolina John said...

Fantastic! I hope you got a receipt for the donations. We donate a bunch as well every year, makes for a nice write off.

Gracie said...

Wow, so interesting that you were able to get rid of all those items. I think I tend to not hang on to things because my mom is sort of a hoarder and it scared me straight, but it's a healthy exercise to eliminate excess regardless of how good you think you are about clutter. For example, I think I only own what I need in my kitchen, but I really never use our espresso machine - I am keeping it only because it was a gift and I'm afraid the giver will notice it's missing out of my kitchen!

Raquelita said...

Wow! That's a really impressive level of purge. I rarely buy novels but I have so many academic books that hypothetically I probably won't want to purge until the end of my career.

suki said...

Great job!!!! That's amazing :D

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

WAY TO GO! I bet it felt super freeing.

Jenny said...

Great job! This has been a great project and one that I certainly plan to copy at some point this year. I imagine feeling lighter at the end of it :)

Linda said...

This is amazing. I'm so impressed by you!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Wow, you did great! You must feel so much "lighter"!!

Amber said...

Oh I bet it feels soooo great to get rid of so much stuff. We did some purging in February too but probably only 200 - 300 items. I do want to do more purging over the next month though especially since we have an impending move as well. The less we have to move the better!!

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