Task 6 - Done

6. Trim down the college dorm cups, utensils, plates, and decorations

Last weekend I weeded through all of my boxes I haven't looked through since I packed up my dorm room in Theta two years ago. By my estimates I decided to sell about 1/3 of my stash. What follows is just some of the thought process behind the monumental feat.

CAUTION: If you find logic in any of these arguments, you may be a hoarder.

**A stack of 10 Concordia Alumni cups**
Me: Leave Concordia behind...sell
Me: Oh, but I worked so hard to get all of these.
Me: Don't promote Concordia for free...toss them
Me: But they were so useful!
Me: TOSS!
Me: ok
(however, now that I consider it, I should probably take them back and use them as paint cups!)

**A box of toys**
Me: You're 23 years old...sell them
Me: But how cool would I be to have these in my classroom?
Me: You need a classroom first
Me: But I can use these to build relationships with my future students! I can't replace this stuff!
Me: Fine...keep them
Me: Yesss...score.

**A can opener still in its package**
Me: Sell it
Me: but wait! It's still new!
Me: you got it from the dollar store
Me: but it's new!
Me: exactly...so sell it
Me: but...but...but
Me: Sell.
Me: Fine. Hmph.
(I later found a second can opener in my stash and stowed it away before I was convinced to part with that one as well)

**Two teddy bears in a bag**
Me: Sell
Me: Wait...I don't think there's any more room in the sell box
Me: I can always make room
Me: But look at the bears...it looks like they're hugging in the bag...maybe they're afraid of being sold (flashes of Toy Story come to mind)
Me: .:sigh:. they are kind of cute like that
Me: AND...I have room in the keep box
Me: Ok, fine. Score one for the cute bears.

**Two crosses made from palm leaves**
Me: Toss
Me: You can't just throw away a cross!
Me: Why not?
Me: It just seems so anti-christian!
Me: Get over it
Me: Think about it...there are countries that won't even let the word of God touch the ground and you're going to throw the symbol of our saving grace in the trash can?
Me: Fine...sell it. Maybe someone will buy it for a dime.

...a few minutes later...

Me: Can I keep one?
Me: No...where will you put it?
Me: I don't know. My bible?
Me: Sell them
Me: But..
Me: Just look at it as having 20 cents instead of 10. Not only did Jesus save you from sins, but he can also save you from debts one dime at a time.

**Plastic Pink Cups**
Me: sell them
Me: They're perfectly good cups! Paul might want to use them!
Me: Seriously...PINK cups. Would you want him to want them?
Me: But what about when I have kids? They need plastic to drink out of!
Me: We're done with this discussion.You're selling them.

And somehow through all this self-talk I got the task accomplished! On to something new this next weekend.

Getting Ready

I've felt it for the past month or so. There's that pressure building up that soon I'll need to be ready to be a wife. No, there have been no proposals, but I feel my time is getting near. Day after day I look at my life and think about what areas I need to work on before I become a wife. My first step has been to sort through all my stuff. Those of you who know me know I'm a packrat. Ever seen the show hoarders? Sometimes I feel like those people, I just tend to be more organized about it. My stuff is sorted into neat boxes and I know exactly which box to get into if I need something. Over the years, though, the boxes have been growing in number and have found homes in other places outside of my room.

About a month ago, my sisters decided to split up. Instead of sharing a room, they wanted their own rooms, and they wanted to have none of my stuff in either of them. This means I got back my children's books (7, 18 gallon tubs of them), my boxes of bags, and all my games. With all my stuff in one room, I began to realize just how much I'd slowly accumulated.

Last weekend, Paul told me (quite bluntly) that when the time came for us to be together he didn't want our place to be a storage facility for my stuff. Ouch. To do him proud I raided my closet and sorted three boxes of childhood toys into keep and sell piles. In the end, I was left with one keep box. It felt oddly good knowing that I could, in fact, get rid of stuff (of course, some things I just had to take a picture of before tossing such as my 8 nano pets/tamogatchis which I wore all the time when I was 10).


Mid week I was lying in my bed staring at my bookshelf and wondered if there were any books I would never read again in my life. I came up with about 10 "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books and a handful of other reading material that was so poorly written I imagine I got them as presents at one point in time.

This weekend I remembered the Barbies I had kept stored away in the attic for 15+ years. I spent a good 1-2 hours today sorting through the 5 boxes we pulled out. As a tribute to my barbies I had to dress each one of them so they were modest when it came to garage sale time. I also assembled all their furniture and proudly displayed the number of cool recreational vehicles they once cruised around my house in. My efforts left me with one ziploc bag of my favorite Barbies and Barbie clothes and 1.5 tables of Barbie items to sell. Of course, as typical, I can't part with them forever, so they'll have their photo op in the near future.

I hope to accomplish the following things next as I strive to become better marriage material:

1. Trim down the number of clothes I have
2. Sort through the 2-3 boxes of school papers I've kept since high school
3. Browse the magazines I've collected since middle school and cut out articles to save, throwing the rest away
4. Download my CDs to my computer and sell the discs and their cases
5. Sort through my bags and only keep ones I'll use the most
6. Trim down the college dorm cups, utensils, plates, and decorations
   

All this seems like an impossible task, especially to a hoarder such as myself. I'll keep you updated and post pictures as I slowly tackle what I've set out to accomplish.