Sedulously Getting Through September

Progression on my shawl is going SLOWLY!! I started it THREE times with the lace yarn I had in my stash and finally decided to go buy fingering yarn and give it one last shot. Well, it is working out better, but I'm not sure I will have it completed for the October 10th wedding. We'll see and so will you when I finally post a picture.

My cousin invited me to read The Magic Art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, and although I consider myself a very neat person, Marie's book lit a fire in me that is still burning.

This is just one of the FOUR car loads of stuff I was able to donate to the church for their rummage sale!

Cleaning out my closet and draws has resulted in keeping only the items that truly bring me "joy" to quote Marie and that I really do wear and use. I did not take pictures of all my drawers and the entire closet, but you get the idea...

I must've given away 20-30 pair of shoes that I never wear because they KILL my feet!

Going through clothes is the easiest task in tidying up, it gets more difficult as you go along. The second task was to go through my books; hardest of all were the cookbooks I've collected over the years. I only kept those that I refer to often or I consider "hall of frame" books and the children's cookbooks I am keeping on hand for my granddaughter. Next I approached the storage area of our basement.  Oh my, the stuff I was holding onto was ridiculous...

Seriously, most of this stuff hadn't seen the light of day for years! 

I was able to donate a car-load of stuff along with boxes of books and I trashed the stuff I didn't think was fit to pass along.Maybe there will be a time when I will regret getting rid of something, but as my son has often asked me, "How much did you pay for that? Did you get your money's worth out of it? So, if you need it again can you afford to buy a new one?"  Indeed I got my money's worth out of all the items I donated, so let someone else enjoy them now. 

And I am left with  a much more organized space.

Today I will attempt to organize all of my papers. All of us hold on to papers, which are not necessary to save. It is hard to know what to get rid of and what to keep, but using Marie's method of sorting, I am confident I can tackle this task. Next will be the sentimental stuff, like boxes of photos I have, which are doubles of pictures I have in scrapbooks. That will be the hardest task of all. However, I am so over storing "stuff" that I am willing to throw away most anything!