Real Estate Blog - Purging Your Belongings

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Purging Your Belongings - Part Deux

Back in August, I wrote a little post about purging my belongings. It was well-received, and a few fellow agents asked me how it was going.

watch and knife

My little experiement got out of control. What a surprise. I decided that I needed to get rid of 365 things...one for each day of this year. Oh, really? At first, I truly didn't believe that I could. My belongings have never been completely out of control, and I felt that I really needed and wanted what I had so carefully acquired.

However, I gave a good deal of thought to how much time it takes to care for all these items. Then, I began to work in earnest...it took me a week and a half. 365 things in 11 days. Compulsive? Absolutely. But, I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it was. And the local charities were very happy, too!

You might want to try a modified version...one item a week. Most of us have stuff we keep for someday...that someday may be here!

Let me know if this inspires you!!

Posted by Suzanne McLaughlin on 10/25/2009 12:38 PM

Comments (7)

clutterfree

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7 Comments on Purging Your Belongings - Part Deux

OCT

It is incredible how much stuff we have. I am amazed at all of the crap I accumulate. Then when I need it, can't find it, go to Lowes, by another one, then find them all within 6 months. The greatest book on the subject is "Simplify Your Life" by Elaine St. James.

Halfway thru the book I found myself filling my truck with the second load to the dump. If you haven't seen it or used it in 2 years, get rid of it. Heck I found stuff that I have never used. My wife's closets are not to be touched, that became apparent very early

Congratulations Suzanne! What a liberating experiment and it just goes to prove that we all could do without about 365 things!! I watched an interesting program about Copenhagen the other night, the people they interviewed do not have a lot of stuff, and they were perfectly perfectly happy! I'm sure the mood will hit me to tackle this - just not today :-)

Wish I could do this for my home office!! Great idea - it's hard to concentrate with too much unneccesary stuff in there!

-Doug

I think we all need a little less...live lightly on the earth. When I need something for the second time, I might buy it. Generally at a garage sale, if I can. I am not contributing much to the GNP at the present time. Unless it through the charities...LOL.

Wow 365 things in 11 days. This definitely has inspired me. I think I can do 1 a week if not more. In 11 days? I don't know-that might be alittle tougher-a time crunch more than anything. LOL

Deb, you know I'm Irish, sometimes, depending on one's temperment, we can be somewhat compulsive. When I mentioned this "mission" to my accountant, she also thought one a week might work since she is also trying to pare things down. I think that is more realistic for most people except Ed Newman and me. Simplifying was my main goal! And, now, except for too much paper which I am now working on recycling, I think I can deal with things. Thanks for stopping by! As Susan M always puts it, XXOO.

NOV

I would hesitate to follow Ed's lead (comment #1) to the dump in this day and age. With eBay, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Sell it on eBay and make some money! With eBay you can have the largest garage sale in the world!

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