Purging ... my new addiction

Three days into my 16 week challenge and I think I am doing pretty good so far. Monday I started on the front hall closet. Really we call it the "Shoe Closet". I should have taken a before picture of it. You would think that I had a small army living in my house with the amount of shoes we own. I guess to some people having 4 kids may seem like a small army lol. The amount of shoes was amazing to me. I am pretty sure the shoes starting breeding in there ... sort of how bunnies do. I didn't get to finish what I started because my car needed some work. Since I work all day taking it to a mechanic is not an easy task. I asked my friend Dave for his help and he fixed my car for just the cost of the part. I did hold the light for him to see. :)

I admit that I didn't get much done last night with the Shoe Closet or anything else. Come on it was Fat Tuesday and I needed to spend some quality time with my two best guy friends (Randy and Dave). I was home and in bed sleeping by 915. (On a side note I don't have my 3 younger kids Mon, Tues, Wed nights ... well unless they are sick)

Tonight however is a whole other story. I put Mini-me to work on the shoes while I made dinner. In a very short time we had filled a garbage bag of shoes to give to Goodwill. We also filled the trash can half full of shoes that had been chewed by the dog we had over a year ago (no idea why we still had those shoes), shoes that had no partner in life anymore (still wondering where their mates went), and shoes that were not even worthy of passing on (mostly Little Mans as he is very hard on shoes).
The hardest part was 4 little pairs of Converse that belonged to Little Bird when he was 1 & 2 years old. I lined them all up on the floor and about cried. Mini-Me tried told me to keep them cause they were so cute. I told her no and put them in a seperate bag from all the other shoes. I had a fight with myself about what to do with them. UGH Letting go is so hard but really I have no use for the shoes. So I put the bag on top of the rest of the items that will go to Goodwill on Sat. I am hoping I have the strength to let them go with out to many tears shed or. Really they are just shoes ...

I also cleaned out 2 of the cupboards in the kitchen. My kitchen is very very small. I call it a 1 butt kitchen ... as in literally 1 person can fit in it. So cupboard space and counter space is limited. When I went to get my glass for dinner I realized how much junk I had that I didn't need. So I started purging everything I could. Again struggled with a few items but realized I have not used those items in years and probably won't use them anytime soon. I found our toasting glasses from my wedding and put them in the box. I hesitated briefly just cause I thought they were pretty but again not using them and didn't see myself using them in the future.

I also have a clean kitchen, laundry is caught up and almost all put away (it's folded on the kitchen table so it has to be put away before dinner tomorrow), and my lunch is packed and ready to go for tomorrow. :-O I am sort of freaking myself out over here. LOL

As I was doing all of this purging I felt good but then I realized I need a better way then some spread sheet to show what I have done. If I don't see instant results I have a tendency to get overwhelmed and want to give up. So I decided that I needed a visual of all of the junk I am getting rid of to remind me that I am making progress even when it doesn't look like I am. So I took a picture of the stuff going to Goodwill on Sat.

Two kitchen trash bags, 2 grocery store bags, 1 medium box, 1 small box and then of course the bag with the Converse.

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~Author Unknown