Sunday, January 15, 2012

New Year, new resolve

I don't typically make New Year's resolutions, but the new year happened to coincide with me wanting to clean out our house a bit AND my mom mentioning "40 bags in 40 days" AND me borrowing a book from my mom: "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett.  Super-outdated copy, he talks about organizing your RECORDS, for crying out loud, but the PRICIPLES of the book are fantastic!  So I've been reading, reading, reading, and towards the end of each chapter I get so motivated that I can't finish reading until I clean out that drawer that he's been nagging me about. Or that closet.  Or that medicine box.  Or my shoes. Or my magazines. Or my records (tee-hee-hee!). Or my garage, even though it's January.  He's that inspirational.  So I recommend it to anyone and everyone, even if you think you're totally un-cluttered. I thought I was near the top of the uncluttered scale, I DO keep a running Donation Bag that I toss things into as I find I don't want or need them.  That's what I thought.

Turns out, my drawers, closets, medicine boxes, magazines, records (tee-hee-hee!), and garage disagreed with my self analysis, and I have already gathered NINE bags of stuff.  NINE, folks! I thought it was impossible, yet I realise I'm only just getting started.   My mom did "40 bags in 40 days," which could be bags of trash, donations, selling items, giving away items, or any combination, but if you just KEEP LOOKING and digging and cleaning you will manage to come up with 40 bags... and then you can rest. I was just looking to morph that idea into "a lot of bags in a generic number of days" while I read this book, but ya know?  I think I just might hit 40.  Wish me lots of luck, and if you ever need a gift for me, I'm in need of more trash bags (about 31).

2 comments:

Kari and Jonathan said...

Good for you!! Maybe I'll have to read it next!

Elsha said...

That book IS motivating!