100 Fewer Things – Part 4
100 Fewer Things continues. March has been a busy month and productive month and Elizabeth and I have put in some serious time in the decluttering effort. Elizabeth hasn’t set a goal like my “100 things”, but she definitely has her share of stuff she can get rid of so I’m happy she’s participating.
As of the end of February, I was at a net total of 61. While that is 61% of the way there, I’m getting close to the point where I’ve gone through most of the obvious stuff so I have to dig a little deeper. While that is more difficult, it’s also somewhat more satisfying because the less obvious things are the ones that feel more likely to build up and just stick around forever. (For example, I like the cycling cap in the photo below. And I was tempted to keep it because I like it. But the chances of me ever wearing it again are slim and the chances of me missing it once it’s gone are pretty much zero.) Last weekend, I went through the closet some more and found 15 more things – some dress shoes that are just too fancy for me to ever realistically wear again, some random old cycling and triathlon gear, a broken watch, some drawstring backpacks and a bunch of extra running nutrition that I’ll find a good home for. The North Face backpack in this photo actually was Elizabeth’s and she decided to keep it, so that’s not included in my count.
Then, we tackled our big bookshelf. I love reading and love owning books, but there’s no reason to keep all of them! Even by getting rid of this bin full, our bookshelf is overflowing. There are a lot of really good books in this pile and we donated them to Loren’s library so they’ll either get put in the library system or sold to raise money for the branch. Either way, that’s better than just collecting dust in our house.
There’s something like 50 books in that bin, but most of them are Elizabeth’s (she has always bought and kept more books than me), and I can only take “credit” for about 12 of them.
Since the last count, I did buy a new swimsuit, so, 61 + 15 +12 -1 = 87. That’s putting me really close. There are still some big things that I’ve been procrastinating about. I want to sell them and that takes more effort that giving away or throwing away. But those things have to go soon!
Quick update on the running: I ran three times last week and a run tomorrow will put me at 3 this week. Easy runs, nothing longer than 4 miles and little over 30 minutes. So far, things seem OK. Fingers crossed!