Okay, so it’s March, not February. I meant to post this last month and just realized that I never did. One weekend, thinking about my New Year’s word which, as you may recall is “Edit”, I helped my daughter edit her room. We purchased risers to lift her bed up high enough to allow and underbed storage container to fit underneath. We dismantled the bed, vacuumed it all out, changed all the bedding.
My husband started during the week, working their way around the periphery (like at the supermarket? The way you’re “supposed” to shop to get the healthy food, right?). They attacked the furniture surfaces (read: clutter magnets) first: bureau, nightstand, corner table, desk. They next moved on to the closet, completing the top shelf and the floor.
I took over on the weekend, finishing the contents of the closet and all of the (5!) bureau drawers. When we were finished, we had 4 stuffed trash bags of things she didn’t need/want/use/wear anymore!
I was so motivated by how great her room looked that I proceeded on to do my own closet (well, most of it) and my (6!) bureau drawers. I took out 2 1/2 bags of cast offs.
I read the book : 30 Days to a Simpler Life by Cris Evat about 10 years ago, and still have it. Okay, okay, I save things. It’s what I do. My mother threw away everything, including all of my childhood belongings, and I guess that I responded to this by never throwing away anything (at least, that’s what my husband will tell you!) but sometimes I really do need something that I haven’t used in 10 years! So I have my book out, dusted off, and am consulting it as a tool to help me with my objective for 2011: editing!
One of the most effective suggestions in this book, and the one I still use to this day, is this: go around the house (or you can focus on just one room; it’s up to you) with an empty bag and fill it. With what? With anything that you don’t need/love/use/want anymore. Anything that you can part with that will give you the gift of this: empty space. Go ahead, try it. The book suggests that you do it every day, but even if you only do it once, that’s still one whole bag less of clutter in your home.
Try to resist the urge to fill it back up right away (you know you’ll want to). 🙂
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
Thank you for the “two week” concept; maybe I can bag things up, then wait two weeks to see if I needed any of it, and if not, rid myself of it without a pang of regret! I am on page 74 (of currently 314) with my editing. I sat down to continue the edits this morning but am writing blog posts and chatting with friends (like you!) online instead. I think it’s all important though, all reading and writing is part of the creative process, don’t you think? 🙂
Throwing things out is hard for me too and I am often blamed by my husband (though he has his own collection which he claims to be useful).
“The gap between throwing something out and finding it useful is just two weeks.” I hope you too might have experienced this.
After every term I ‘edit’ my room at school. Still each time there will two or three large trash bags full of ‘cast off’s.
Hope your book is getting ready.