Clean Sweep - Week 1

I made a promise that after I graduated, I would begin work on cleaning out the house of things we didn't really need in preparation for our move this summer. It may seem a little early, but for those who know me, they know I plan well in advance, and besides, we have accumulated a lot of junk in our years (Lori - 10, me - 8) in Morgantown.

I also had promised Lori that I would not start cleaning until after the first of the year. Well, the first has come and gone and this past weekend, I begin the long dreaded task of purging our unwanted, unused, unloved, and unneeded household goods. For week one, we tackled THE DEN! Actually, it was week two since we were in Baltimore part of the weekend before.

In just a few short hours, I filled THREE large lawn & leaf garbage bags -- and that was just the trash! That wasn't even the usable goods that we are planning to donate to Goodwill. Man, we sure collected alot of paper! Much of it was vacation brochures and literature and lots of old financial stuff that I shredded before I bagged it up. Wow, does that mean because I shredded the stuff, I probably actually had five or six large garbage bags full?

My goal for the first week, and every week, is to eliminate at least 100 items. Now that may sound like a lot, but you'd be surprised when you start counting your own stuff. I don't think we made it to 100, but I can say we made great progress. Over the weekend, we set aside 50 items that we could get rid of. This included two cell phones we recycled through Operation Shoebox and several Christmas items that we will no longer use. The number climbs much higher if you count all the old gift bags we saved for reuse and all the magazines we saved for the wonderful recipes. Unfortunately, we didn't even scratch the surface. Next weekend, we are in Pittsburgh, so we probably won't get much accomplished then, but the following week, I am hoping for another 100 items.

Anyone having a yard sale?