Let It Go

So here we go, January arrived several days ago now, and we have a project to complete. We've drawn up the plans for the closet, but the shelf brackets weren't available at any of the local hardware stores and won't be arriving until next week. But there's no time to delay!

If I am going to be serious about this commitment, every day counts! Add in the fact that we've already got 2 weekends pretty booked away (not successful yet with the "saying no" but these were commitments mostly made before the end of 2017). We've got 1 out of town weekend trip planned, and 5 other happenings scheduled for my precious Saturdays. I hope to take a lesson from January as for when to say No.

I had originally planned to declutter as I am putting things into the new closet, but with the bracket delay, I'm starting now. That will not only make for filling the closet faster, but I'll have a chance to give everything a second look once it starts going in.

I figured an easy place to start would be my socks. I know I haven't gone more than a corner into my sock bin in probably 2 years, and just buy new socks when my favorites seem to be very sparing. So I emptied the entire bin onto my bed to really evaluate. Not only did I find long lost mates (who would've thought!), I was really shocked.

While most of these are perfectly good socks, I am going to be honest with myself that I never wear the majority of these. I have my favorite go-to socks...so why not just keep those? I separated all my favorites, holiday socks, and weather-specific ones, and dumped the rest into a box. If I hadn't worn it in the last year, in the box it went. I tossed all my holiday socks in the holiday-decor closet, then opened each pair of socks to check for holes. Here's what made the cut this round:

41.5 pair dumped..... what's left is really more than I need, but as these get worn, I will throw them away until I eventually get to a reasonable number. They won't be lost in the bottom of the bin never to be worn, because these are all of my favorite socks!

After my sock drawer, my underwear drawer (I purged that last year, wish I'd been counting back then because HOLY COW!) and my husband's underwear drawer, we are at 54.5 items gone in our first day.

You can donate all used clothes (socks and underwear included) to be recycled into things like insulation! While part of me feels the squigs donating my used underwear, we are all human, all have them, and I am doing my smallest part to help the planet.
H&M: http://www.hm.com/us/inspiration/ladies/bring-it-on and https://about.hm.com/en/sustainability/get-involved/recycle-your-clothes.html
The North Face: https://www.thenorthface.com/about-us/responsibility/product/clothes-the-loop.html

New Year, New You

Hello 2018, it is nice to see you.

I have 2 resolutions this year, and (of course) every intention to stick to them.

1. (Mostly) complete 1 room of our home for each month of the year. We just moved in September, and our house is basically a blank canvas with a ton on the to-do list.
        To start, we will be doing our master bedroom closet. We asked our builders not to hang shelves so we could personalize the layout and maximize the space. We currently have little piles of clothes all over the place, and are borrowing a small closet from another room, so having this as our first room will clear up a lot of small areas throughout the house. The closet has stacks of boxes in it at the moment, so we will be starting from the ground up, and we are already a few days in to January so its time to get moving.

1a. In the process of completing a room from top to bottom, I want to declutter/minimalize/minimize the items in the room.
        Decluttering/minimalizing/minimizing (DMM from here on out) means something different for everyone. The purpose is to love what you have, and only have what you love. Purge everything else. By doing this 1 room at a time, perhaps I can reach the goal of 2,018 things by the end of 2018. I purged a lot when we moved, and again when we unpacked, but nothing serious, nothing committed. This time I am doing it with the intention of completing the task - to truly have only things I love left. Because here is where I am currently with most every area of my life:

It doesn't matter what I do, this spot, like many others, never stays clear, and it drives. me. crazy. Even when its clean, it still looks like a cluttered mess. 2018 is the year!

2. Make time to focus on myself. 
        This is partly in conjunction with my 1a. resolution. By being serious about my DMM project(s), I will be eliminating the clutter and noise in my life. But I also want to learn that its OK to say no. We do not have to attend every event, or celebration, or night out, or birthday party, or extra-curricular activity. We over-commit sometimes, finding ourselves with 3 scheduled things on 1 precious Saturday, and I find that leaves little time for things I truly want to be doing.

I want to challenge myself to be more like this woman:

I want to be the person that is bored on Saturday night so we play board games, or work a puzzle. I want to be have time to do things unplanned. I want to feel free to do things I want rather than out of obligation. This is the year.