Tit for Tat

A colleague at work gave me a present today of a nice silk scarf she brought back from a trip to the far East. It will go nicely with a camel-hair coat I own, and so I'll be keeping the scarf. Of course, I felt duty bound to discard another scarf in its place. I went through a bag of hats, scarfs and gloves that I keep in our front closet and wound up discarding one scarf and four hats (do I really need two wool black berets---nope). Not a lot of decluttering, but at least I didn't add any additional stuff.

Church Sale

There is a Catholic Church on my block that is having a flea market this weekend. Last Sunday I went through the apartment and pulled out all sorts of things to give them for their sale. I focused on the kitchen and in the process pulled out all my pots and pans and organized them neatly in the cabinets. They had, over the years, been put backed haphazardly after being used and were a messy pile. I wound up giving away to the church sale:
7 books
Toothbrush Sanitizer (an unused present)
CD Rack
4 pots and pans
1 milk pitcher (I still have 2 left and I usually just pour milk from the carton)
1 mug- never used
1 T-shirt- new
4 letter tray- new
1 Pyrex casserole dish
1 spring cake pan
1 never-used digital camera (1.2 pixels)

Today I noticed the several bottles of good wine I had sitting on top of out book shelves. They were mostly Mouton Cadet had been given to me over the years by the firm I worked at. I have had them for between six and twelve years without ever having opened them. I brought seven bottles over to the church. A productive decluttering week.

Getting Back to Blogging

One of my issues is clutter and cyberspace does not need another deserted blog, so I am resuming this blog. Soon after my last entry my modem crapped out, and it took a week to get a new one. Then inertia and procrastination took over, and I kept putting off returning to the blog, which is odd since I actually enjoy writing it. Anyway I'm going to give another shot at keeping this going.

When I last wrote I discussed socks, specifically the large trash bag I had that was full of socks and pantyhose I don't currently wear. I did go through the bag and threw out or gave away about twenty pairs of socks of various types that I decided I would never wear. So continuing with the Clever Dude challenge I set myself back in October I have now gotten rid of 78 items of clothing, and still have 54 to go.

There is a church on my block that is having a flea market this weekend. So this past Sunday I looked around our apartment to see what I could donate. I was pretty pleased by what I managed to get rid of. I gave them 7 books, an unopened toothbrush sanitizer ( a present), 1 cd rack, 4 pots and pans, 1 milk pitcher, a new mug, a new T-shirt, 4 still wrapped inbox trays, 1 casserole dish, 1 spring cake pan, and one never used Olympus digital camera (1.2 pixels) still in its box with the software and instruction books.

Oh, with the donated T-shirt, that make 53 items of clothing to go in my clothing challenge.

How much is enough?

I started this blog by saying that I have too much stuff and that I want to get rid of some of the excess. So, while I know that I have too much stuff, I am less clear as to how much stuff is enough. I wrote last week about my turtleneck shirt hoarding, but I did not mention the full, large garbage bag of excess socks and stockings that is jammed into the back of my closet. I keep them there because my sock and underwear drawer barely closes. Now I do go through a lot of socks. I wear slacks to work with casual shoes that need socks worn with them. I also walk funny, with the big toe on both feet jutting up a bit, quickly pushing holes into the toes of the socks. Still, I do not the need the estimated fifty or more pairs that are stashed away in that bag. So again I ask, how much is enough?

I don't really want to get rid of too many of the extra socks, since I know that eventually I will need them and will feel like I am throwing out needed stuff. Then I will have to spend good money to replace them, which goes against a certain innate, if inconsistent, frugality I have. Yet, I am feeling oppressed and absurd that I have all these socks, so tomorrow that bag will be purged.

Re-reading this I find it too self-indulgent and navel-gazingish. I don't know if anyone is reading this yet, but even I am bored by reading about my excess socks. So, enough of this. Back to the census of what I have thown out.

10/20/2007-- Discarded nine men's shirts that my son and husband don't wear anymore. 74 more pieces of clothing to discard in the Clever Dude challenge.
10/22/2007-- Threw out ten mail-order catalogues. Also threw out a 1999 edition of the Encyclopedia of Associations (3 vol.); don't even ask.

One more thing, I just realized that i did not get anywhere near answering the question of how much is enough. I'm sure I will be re-visiting that issue as I get on with this.

Baseball Night

I watched the Cleveland/Boston playoff game tonight and did not do much decluttering. I am throwing out a few things, and am falling behind on the clothing challenge I set myself. I'll be upstate this weekend, which is where I store many of my clothes, so I should be able to get rid of a lot of stuff. I also realized that, except for food and cleaning supplies, I haven't bought anything for at least five or six weeks. That is a good sign.

10/18/2007-- Discarded an old pair of slippers, a wool headscarf and a pair of suspenders I bought my son several years ago that he never wore. Three items of clothing discarded. 83 pieces of clothing to go. Also got rid of 3 books.

Clothing Challenge Continued

This challenge is harder for me than I thought it would be. About a month before I started this blog I had a garage sale and put out over a hundred clothing items to sell. Some sold, but most didn't and what's left is stored in large garbage bags. I already have bought two of the bags to the Salvation Army and to a local clothing pantry. I'm still keeping a couple of bags as I may have another sale, before the weather gets too cold, since a friend wants to join me in garage sale. This is a long way of saying that many of the easily disposable pieces of clothing have already been winnowed out, so I am still left with too much stuff, but it is stuff that I consider to be useful.

For example, I haven't been able to discard either new or good condition turtleneck jerseys, a staple of my winter wardrobe, even though I own about fifty of them. About a dozen of them are in drawers and get worn with some regularity. However I have some thirty or forty, mainly new ones, ( I should count them this weekend) stored in a trunk upstate. I figure that each year I will add a few new ones to the rotation and get rid of the ones that get stained or too worn. I can call this planning ahead, but it is dangerously close to being hoarding. I should just throw out some duplicate colors--I must have five or six pink ones. This is the part of decluttering I find hard, getting rid of perfectly good clothes. But then again, who needs six pink turtleneck shirts. This is something I need to work on if I truly want to declutter and not be ruled by my stuff.

So continuing the Clever Dude challenge I went through my drawers and closet looking for more stuff to get rid of, but as I noted it is getting harder. I cheated a bit and also am counting things like belts and wallets, as well as socks and scarves. However I will keep at it until I get rid of 132 pieces of clothing, or clothing related items like wallets and handbags.

10/17/2007--Ten belts, three pairs of shoes, four scarves, one sweater, three shirts, two wallets, two underwear. 25 items of clothing discarded. 86 pieces of clothing to go.

P.S. If anyone out there knows how to move the "Blogs I Read" list which is at the bottom of the page to the side of the page under the profile view link, I would appreciate the help. I am new to blogging and I could not find how to do it on Blogger's help screens.

ETA- I finally figured out how to drag the blog list to the sidebar area.

132 Pieces of Clothing Challenge

Yesterday, in one of the personal finance blogs I read, Clever Dude described how he and his wife went about discarding 132 items of clothing. Being suitably inspired, I've decided to set myself a challenge of getting rid of another 132 pieces of clothing that we own by the end of this week. I just finished checking the clothes my grown son had left in the closet of his old bedroom. There are at least 15 shirts in there. We still keep some of his clothes here for when he visits, but he certainly does not need that many shirts. I immediately decided that five of them can go, since he does not wear plaids. More will probably go once I talk with him. They are all in fine shape, and one of them still has tags on it from the Gap. Also in my son's dresser I found a 6 pack of Hanes briefs, unopened, in a size that is now too small for him. I will list the shirts and the unopened underwear on Freecycle.

Giving a quick look in my bedroom I found three pairs of my shoes and five of my blouses to discard. I didn't spend much time going through my room as my husband went to sleep early tonight, but I will look more tomorrow. This challenge will be fun. Thanks, Clever Dude.

10/16/2007--Five shirts, six blouses, three pairs shoes, six men's briefs, 1 faded Culinary Institute T-shirt . 21 items of clothing discarded. 111 pieces of clothing to go.