Finally: Getting It Gone.

In the Spring, I embarked on an ambitious program to get rid of a certain number of items every single day during the month of March. The number of items was to be the same as the number of the day: so on the 3rd of March, I got rid of 3 things. On the 29th, 29 things.

Now according to the rules of the "game", you are supposed to actually take those items out of the house each day. I did not. I let them gather in piles, I worked on several days at once, and when it was all over, had a list of places to take things to really, finally, get rid of them.

The exercise both took over my life and overwhelmed me--and there are still a lot of boxes in my garage. In short, this way of decluttering really didn't work for me: and that's OK.

Much more successful for me is to declutter organically--as just a part of whatever I'm doing. So, as I decorate the mantel and take down a thrift store painting, I decide whether to keep it--or let it go. When I do the seasonal clothing swap out, I assess each garment and decide what to do with it.

This week's decluttered items were gathered like that. But, as usual, it took me a long while to get some of them actually out of the house.

This pile was from my closet purge in June--and then I did another closet purge a little while ago. The clothes sat upstairs, outside my bedroom door for about two weeks.

This stuff here in the basement "donation station" is mostly from my daughter--and her closet purge in June!

Finally, I got it all together in one pile--but it was already dark by eight pm.

But no matter. It is all gone now! My house and I feel several pounds lighter.

 (Those are the brown drapes I took down out of the living room this spring. I haven't decided what to do with them. Meh. Progress, not perfection, right?)

Boom da da boom.