Book 30: Throw Out Fifty Things

Book 30 is Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life by Gail Blanke.

Blanke walks you through each room in your house, encouraging you to purge things you don't need, don't want, don't like, don't use, as well as things that have bad feelings attached to them. It sounds easy, but if you throw out 40 old magazines, that only counts as one thing. But it IS easy anyway, because there's so much stuff in most of our houses that we can still throw out 40 categories of things fairly easily.

The next section is about throwing out ideas, beliefs, and mindsets that don't help you. One of Blanke's was the need to always be right. I can use that one, too. One of my own is that I need for no one to ever be mad at me.

Another one of mine is the strong, strong desire for things to be the same indefinitely. I want to get my life to a certain good point and then freeze it there forever. Well, I know that's impossible, but it's still been one of my life's works. I'm trying to let go of it. Change is good and fun and exciting AND terrifying. I like change when I initiate it, but I will try to be less resistant to it when it's forced upon me.

Here's a picture of some of the clothes and shoes I donated today (by the way, we rent and so it's not my choice that the wall is mustard yellow):

 

I had a box full in the garage, too. In total, it was 4 garbage bags full, plus they were overflowing. Jason helped me take them to a donation box in a convenience store parking lot. Usually the boxes are red and made of metal. This one looked like a tiny shed from Home Depot. I would never have noticed it, but Jason is good at noticing.

Don't worry; I still have plenty to wear. I'm a little sad about those cowboy boots on the right side of the picture. So cute! But they have like 2-inch heels and I am unable to wear real heels. I can handle about an inch, and after that I'm all wobbly and my feet hurt. I never wore those, and I know I never would, so away they went.

On the other hand, I almost got rid of a pair of sandals that I've rarely worn, and I have other sandals that I like more. But all of a sudden I fell completely in love with those sandals! They're Dr. Scholl's, but with a flat sole that's rubber instead of wood. And the leather is patent turquoise! I felt so sad walking them to the dump pile that I had to keep them. I can always get rid of them later, but maybe this summer I will wear them.

Blanke says that if you really love something, you should keep it even if you don't use it. And if you have things that you use but don't like, perhaps you should get rid of them! That helped me to throw out some clothes that are appropriate for wearing to an office job, but that I don't really like. I don't need them. Honestly, I don't know how I ever think, "I don't have anything to wear." Trying on all those clothes also let me rediscover some things that I'd forgotten about or dismissed. Even if they don't look great on the hanger, they look good on. Now to just remember that when I'm picking out clothes.

I still have several more sections of the house to sort through: a filing cabinet, some boxes of miscellaneous stuff, all my books, the kitchen, and the closet in the basement (mostly law school books -- should I keep those?). If I make another big pile, I'll add an update with a photo of all that stuff.

Blanke is a professional motivator, and she tells a good anecdote. If you want a little encouragement to clean out your house or your mind, you might like this book. There are a few problems with comma usage, and at the end of the book she suddenly starts calling the reader "my friend," but I can get past those very minor annoyances. I'm sure you could do this process on your own, but it's nice to have a bit of encouragement sometimes.