the purge continues

There are two more days left in March, but since March was such a blah month for me and April seems full of hope, I'm declaring today and tomorrow "tiny April". (This comes from my neice who had her 5th birthday party 2 weeks before her actual birthday. She annonced to everyone that she was going to turn 5 at her party. Her mother tried to explain to her that even though they had the party, she wouldn't actually be 5 for 2 more weeks. So for two weeks, she told everyone that she was "tiny 5") I see that logic as nothing short of genius! So I decided to borrow it for my own.

Anyway, the whole point of that tangental tale is that I'm jumping in feet first to get caught up on all the areas that have been sliding lately. Including blogging, exercising, and decluttering with a vengence.

Last week, I revisited the little office alcove in the Garaje Mahal. It's interesting that the second time through, I didn't have as much to get rid of with wild abandon. It was more of a mindful process. AND (maybe more importantly) the decluttering process has become more of a daily activity. Maybe that's the key: not doing spring cleaning and fall cleaning in one giant fell swoop, but working the decluttering process into your everyday routine. Do dishes? Scan the cabinet for unwanted bowls. Check email? Scan the pile next to the computer for unneeded papers. Clean the bathroom? Look under the sink for expired cosmetics. Maybe someday there'll be nothing left to chuck. Dare I dream!!

March 23: On my bookcase, I store my ballcaps on the top uprights. I have way too many ballcaps. I put 2 in the donation bag.

March 24: ON the top shelf of the bookshelf, I have an old school paper address book. I will never get rid of it. (I can never accidentally delete the paper version) On top of the address book, I had, like, 5 baby announcements. I actually wrote the baby's names down in the address books and recycled the announcements.

March 25: Second shelf down was a pile of CDs for programs and classes and virus scans and such. I went through the pile, organized them into categories, got rid of the cases, and got rid of the unneeded CDs.

March 26: Also hanging on the side of the bookcase were a bunch of nametags and lanyards from classes and conferences I've been to. Why do I hang onto these? A couple were multi colored and fun, so I put them in the Easter baskets I have for my neices and nephew. The rest I threw away.

March 27: Laundry day! Two loads of laundry, two articles of clothing. I have like 7 pairs of slipper socks. How did that happen? I put two pair of slipper socks into the donation bag.

March 28: I went through the piles of papers on the desk top. Acted upon papers that needed action, filed papers that needed filing, and recycled papers that needed recycling.

March 29: I took the bag of books down to the GotBooks donation bin. Feels so good to have it outta here!

Next week, moving on to the bedroom!