Winnowing Out the Chaff

Clutter management?  How do you do it??????

It's odd how the strangest things can trigger action.  Over the weekend, I hit the limit on my Picasa account; I could not upload any more pictures without upgrading to a paid account.  Perplexed, I began examining my digital photo archive.



The first thing I noticed was that there were some random albums which I had apparently uploaded while I wasn't paying attention.  I merged those into the correct existing albums and felt much more "organized" but still had no remaining space.  I decided to look a little more closely.

Just how many

copies of the same

picture are needed? 

Oddly enough, I saw a picture that appeared several times, so I deleted the extras.  Then I found another, and another, and realized that I had an epidemic of duplicates.  By the time I was done eliminating duplicates, I had freed 15% of my storage space!

I wondered if the 15% bloat was happening in other places in my life.  I had no further to look than my bedroom; sure enough, my dresser was stacked with books, cards, and outdated mail.  Outdated mail to the trash, cards to the memento drawer, and books to the library--I'll organize them later.

No wonder the closet was
overflowing!

From there I moved to the closet, which was overflowing with a mish-mosh of summer and winter clothes.  I packed winter clothes (which I had not really needed last winter) into a vacuum bag.  As I was packing them, I realized that some might not fit anymore since I've lost nearly twenty pounds.  So, I pulled them out again and tried them on before repacking those that fit, and bagging up the others to go to the resale or the thrift store.

When the Resident Dragon arrived home, he joined in the fun, and worked on his closet.  He hates, hates, hates trying on clothes, but has recently lost nearly two shirt sizes in weight.  It took two evenings, but we had a wonderful time culling out the too-big, and the ragged-out, and the never-will-wear-again items.  It was like a shopping spree, but no money was required!

Old catalogs, phone books, outdated
mail were cluttering this cabinet!
Look at it now!

Tomorrow the culled clothing is going away.  Already I feel lighter, more centered--which is not what you'd expect from a "collector" (pack rat).  Maybe I can change, after all.  Maybe the "collecting" season of my life is waning and the "winnowing" season is waxing.  I certainly hope so.  The weight of this stuff is tiring.

Just how much is enough?

Well, I certainly have more than enough.  Of everything.

Hopefully, not for long.

What's happening with you?

Nancy