'Bin'ing and purging

So I've spent several days reorganizing the storage shed and sorting all our crap. How is it possible that we have so much stuff? Even more amazing is that it's all been in storage for the last year and a half, and we haven't really missed it. Ok, so we are using my parents' furniture and kitchen things, so if we lived in our own place, we would definitely need our own furniture and kitchen things. And it is nice to be able to go out and get camping stuff or biking stuff out and use them. Now that they're easily accessible. As for the rest of the stuff? While I have gotten rid of a lot of unnecessary things, I know there's still a lot that could be tossed/given away/sold. Unfortunately, I don't think I can make the best decisions regarding everything till we have our own place again and I reevaluate how often we actually use each item.

In sorting through the 3 massive bags and one bin of my clothes, I tossed some in a rag pile for my dad, the majority went in one of the big boxes (I really need to post a pict of these boxes so you can appreciate their size) to be donated, and a small portion stayed in a bin. Most of those were winter clothes, with a shirt and pair of pants that I don't fit into yet, but will. All the rest of the clothes that I was hanging onto for when I lose weight got tossed. I realized I've been hauling them around for the last 5+ years, and they've been taking up closet and storage space, but I haven't worn them. Why keep them? When I do lose weight, I want new clothes to celebrate, not old clothes I haven't worn in, well, let's just say it's been too long. When I tackled the project with that mindset, I was able to be quite ruthless in my purging. It was so nice to see just the small bin of clothes that I decided to hang onto.

I used the same thought process when sorting the 3 big boxes of misc. stuff, and was able to winnow them down to a bin half the size of one of the boxes. Some of the things did get put in their proper boxes (baby stuff, bedding, etc), so it didn't all get tossed, but I was able to get rid of a lot of useless little doodads that always seem to collect in odd drawers or baskets around the house.

We still need to sort Hubby's 5 or 6 bins of clothes, and we also need to sort our closet and dresser. Since we only have one of each, space is at a premium, and if we're not using/wearing shoes/clothes, they shouldn't be taking up valuable space. I'm really liking the 'less-is-more' philosophy.

Now if I can just keep my desk clear. For some reason, there is always a stack of papers on it, and I can never seem to completely clear it. It doesn't help that Hubby's things are now finding their way to my desk also. He really needs his own desk that he can do his homework on (he's started his master's degree and has lots of reading and writing to do). He could use mine, but I'm not willing to give it up- I like being able to log on and check something when I think of it (if I don't, I'll forget about it and only remember when I'm far away from the computer), and if he's at my desk, I can't do that. I've found one that looks good on craigslist, we just have to wait and see if it's still available and if I can talk them down a bit on the price.