Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Day 368: Bag Lady

On Sunday evening HH informed me that he'd invited 3 missionaries and one other gentleman for dinner tonight at 6 PM.  They called at 5 PM to tell us that they couldn't come because of the storm going on outside.  Awesome.  Tell that to the lasagna baking in the oven and the double batch of bread sticks I was in the process of kneading.  At least we had a yummy dinner and there was plenty of food to go around...

So, a while ago a friend told me about this "40 Bags in 40 Days" thing.  Basically, you have 40 days to fill 40 bags with stuff to get rid of.

I've been increasingly overwhelmed by the amount of "stuff" overflowing our every room of our house.  So, last week I remembered the 40 bags idea and decided to go with it.  And I'm adding another feature:  No accumulating of more "stuff" during the 40 days.  Besides food, of course.  But food is all I'm allowing myself to buy for the next forty days.

Today was Day 1.


This photo doesn't do it all justice.  There are a couple large baby toys hiding behind those boxes.  I'm counting each of them as one.  And then some big shelves, too.  Plus, those two boxes.  That is all my Craigslist pile.  And then in another room, I have another huge box full of recycling, a box full of items to donate, and a bag with garbage.  I'm pleased to say that the garbage bag is filling up the slowest.  So, if you count boxes as bags, then I am at 8.  And it's only my first day!

In the process, my kids' toys became more accessible (because there aren't so many crowding for the space) and my storage room is like a dream come true--again.  It's not perfect, but at least this time the boxes that I need access to are in the front and not in the back corner.

And that was my Joyful Moment.  Whew!

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that free up some space!

1 comment:

Linda said...

I can feel the joy that such dejunking and organinizing brings. I'm excited for you!

Tonight my HH and I went to dinner. It was free because first we listened to a presentation from a retirement planning corporation. The presentation was actually quite beneficial and the restaurant superb. The surprise was how much we enjoyed the people across the table from us. An optometrist and his wife who go to foreign countries and give free eye exams and free glasses to thousands of people. This charitable act results in bringing so much joy to so many who can suddenly enjoy life so much more. What a serendipitous experience we had this evening!