I can't believe I'm "getting rid" of books!

So today I took a box of clothes to a local consignment shop (sorry, I forgot to take a picture before I went there!) I wasn't sure if it would be the kind of thing she would take, but to my surprise she took the entire box and encouraged me to come back with more, ASAP! That felt great...I got some items out of the house and hopefully I'll make a little bit of money off of some of them. If they don't sell in the next two months, they will be donated to a cancer research foundation that is also local. So nobody loses in this deal and that makes it easier for me to part with things!

Then tonight, I tackled some more books. I decided that I'm going to "get rid" of most of the random books I have collected at various book sales and just stick to keeping (and trying to read) the authors I'm interested in. Even if I stick to those, I may never read all of the books I have!

I also have come to the decision that I am going to find new homes for some of the authors I collect, but I'm not totally in love with. An example is the Janet Evanovich books. We have been collecting all of her works (my Mom has been reading them like a crazy woman for the past year or so), and while they are fun, I don't feel the need to keep them all. If we didn't own almost all of them, I would probably just check them out of the library, like I did with the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series books by Charlaine Harris.

I feel like this is a great step for me, as books are quite an addiction of mine. They are like my comfort food...I love being surrounded by them, rushing out to the bookstore to get new releases the day the come out, scoring great deals at book sales. I'm in no way, shape, or form giving up my books, but I'm going to try to be a little more sensible with my book buying (and keeping!) I hope by using some of the sites I mentioned in a previous post, I can feel good about my babies going to a loving home and still allowing me to check out some new stuff with out spending a lot of $$$!

Another small success...

Ok, so this show, Hoarders, should be on a continuous loop 24/7. I feel for these people and identify with them. And it motivates me to get rid of some of this stuff!! I will say this to friends and family (both my own and that of others with hoarding tendencies): Be supportive and understand that to us, it's not just junk. We are more likely to succeed with a gentle helping hand than with a shove, telling us to just throw it all away. We are emotionally attached to this "stuff" and if you yell at us about it or throw it out behind our backs, you do more damage than good.

In the spirit of Hoarders night, I took a step tonight that may seem strange to an outsider (but it makes me cheer!) Those who know me, know about my love of candy and day-after-candy-holiday-sales. The items pictured below bit the dust today.

Trying something new...

Ok, so since my first task with the newspaper failed so miserable, I decided to tackle another vice of mine: books. I LOVE books!! And I buy them by the bagful but I never seem to purge to make room for the new purchases (instead, I just keep buying more bookcases!)

So I thought I would try a bit of a different approach to helping dispatch of some of my books. I joined the sites BookMooch (http://bookmooch.com) and SwapTree (http://www.swaptree.com.) The concept is that you list books (and in the case of SwapTree also cd's and DVD's) that you want to give away and then make a wishlist of ones that you would like to receive. I know, it means that some stuff will be coming into my apartment instead of going out, but I feel a million times more willing to part with things knowing that they are "going to a good home." Plus the annual library sales at the three libraries I donate books to have already gone by for this year.

Again, those of you who know me know how much I love my books and do not like to part with them. So far, I have listed six books and two DVD's. I am hoping to be around 20 or 25 by the time I get back from vacation! I hope that people will take an interest in the things I'm listing...most of my items are either brand new or in mint condition because my OCD is so nuts that I don't like any rips, folds, or fingerprints on my books! I feel really good about this...and I can't wait to reap the rewards of the effort when I get to send them to someone else's home!!

Day One: Yeah, this is going to be hard!

Ok, so I was all gung ho to get this rolling. I took a bunch of pictures of some of my worst areas (YIKES!) I set out bins for "Sell", "Donate", and "Return" (I have a lot of stuff with the tags still on it, many things still in the bag with the receipt!) and I bought a box of heavy duty trash bags for the "Trash" pile.
Then I sat down for what I thought would be a relatively quick and simple first task: go through Sunday's newspaper.



For those of you who know me, you know that this is actually quite a challenge for me. I thought at first, I'll just pull out sports, the coupons, and the classifieds, take a quick look at the front page section, then throw the rest away. I wish I could have stuck to that thought process. Once I got in there, I started reading all of the sections. And instead of pitching full sections, I was going through taking out a page here, a page there...it was BAD!!!

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a hoarder.

I have been trying to hide my clutter for years and, despite knowing I needed to clean up my act (haha!) and a number of attempts to do just that, my clutter has really been revealed to me in its true form this year. I have to give a bunch of the credit to a tv show, namely A&E's Obsessed. They recently started a separate program specifically about hoarders, but a pretty severe hoarder had been featured on Obsessed, and I knew that while I wasn't that bad, I was indeed a hoarder.

I have decided to start a blog to help me in the process of "uncluttering" my apartment and hopefully, to a degree, my life. I am trying this on my own...I know that if I can't do this now, I may need to take the next step of seeking out professional help.

Let me tell you a little bit about me and my problem with stuff. I live in a two bedroom apartment that is filled with piles of stuff, with barely enough room to move around. I am so embarrassed by all of my piles, that I very rarely have anyone over to my apartment (it has been nearly a year since anyone has stayed overnight here.)

I have often blamed the accumulation of my stuff on the amount of time I work...I work very crazy hours and I work a lot. I also work in retail, so the ability and the opportunity to buy more stuff is presented on a daily basis. My piles tend to start small, with the idea that I will get to them on my next day off, but instead they just keep growing and growing until I have to start a new pile somewhere else!

I also have a hard time getting rid of things. I find sentimental value in a lot of things that "normal" people consider trash or junk. I am big into memories and I keep a lot of things from my past that remind me of a certain person or place or time in my life. This is my biggest battle and I know will be the hardest part of my journey to be clutter-free: being able to let go.

My friends and family do not understand why I can't just throw all this "stuff" out. This has created strain for me on some of my relationships a number of times and I hate it. While I see where they are coming from, sometimes I wish they would see where I am coming from.

This will not be easy. I anticipate a lot of frustration and obstacles to overcome. I am scared and nervous, but I am also excited about the possibility of not having to climb over piles of stuff every day, of being able to have friends come over again, of being able to see the tables and the floors again! I do not want to be one of the subjects of a Hoarders episode or one of those home improvement network "Clean That House" type shows. I am determined not to let clutter ruin my life any more.

So join me as I take this journey to a clutter-free life. I will try to post pictures of my progress and blog about this process. I think that it will help me stick with it and I hope I can perhaps find support from others who have or are going through the same struggles (and maybe a little cheerleading to keep me going!) Let the cleaning begin!