#2 - Too much stuff - progress

I have been slowly working toward a home and life with 'less stuff'..

it began when I decided once and for all I needed to address my hidden clutter.

I was the queen of 'neat on the surface' when every cupboard needed overhauling.

I bought and devoured Marie Kondos book..

"The life changing magic of tidying up"

and I wrote my first blog post about what I was intending to do.

You can read that ((here))

So I started and all was well....for awhile...

then some road-blocks emerged.

Clothes were easy.... books were too.... but papers had me stumped....not the 'sorting or getting rid of' aspect.... but more how I was going to manage them from this day forward.

I rushed out and bought a new filing cabinet...then immediately regretted it...seeing as now I had less papers than every before so I hardly needed a larger cabinet to keep them.

I ummmed and ahhhed and googled and searched for ideas on how other people kept their papers...

finally I settled on binders for the important stuff...

and a smaller filing cabinet to keep tax papers and that important...need to keep memorabilia.

It was around this time that I became 'stressed and overwhelmed' by the process...

even though I had made good progress to this point... my head was spinning with all I still had to tackle...and I was lost at what to tackle next.

So I searched for some specific lists...even though it didn't quite suit me...

I really liked the list compiled by Juju Sprinkles.. so I printed it out ...took a deep breath and reminded myself... "you can DO this"

Looking back... I have made progress... so I have to be happy with that!

Clothes

(before)

(after)

3 garbage bags to Vinnies

Shoes and Handbags

(before)

I reduced the bags to 6 shoulder bags..two cloth bags and one tote..

all the rest went to Vinnies.

I discarded about 10 pairs of old shoes...and sold one beautiful pair of brown leather boots that were too large.

Books (including recipe)

(before)

(after)

My discard pile was small actually... hubby rescued a couple more...but the others are still here waiting for a trip to Vinnies.

Magazines

eeek...I had SO many...

I gave away over 100 scrapbooking and fabric craft type magazines....seriously I had that many...

I kept all of the magazines I have layouts published in.... and all my 'Real Living' mags..

the rest are all gone...and it feels great!!

I will...I will....I will finish off papers!