Now there's a few things that MOH says that simply fill me with dread; one of them is "we need to have a clear out" because while he says that, what I hear is "we need to clear out some of your junk!"
We have a different philosophy towards things, while neither of us like to throw things that work perfectly well away, I have a tendency to find an alternative use for something, or a reason to hang onto them a little longer.
Remember my allotment shorts with the hole? Yes, exactly.
And I do tend to have more things than MOH as well. So it's been building up and I knew it was coming. Then last we he said.
We need to have a clear out...
To be fair he has a point, but still I'm hearing my version of those words.
I read recently (I forget where) of someone who while decluttering their life committed to throw away the same number of items as the year - so 2010 items in 2010, 2011 items in 2011 and so on - until they reached the optimum number of things for them.
And I wondered how that might work for us.
Now I'm not planning on making this an annual exercise - or at least I don't think I am - but I am curious as to what the number might be. So with Spring around the corner and the tidy bug rising I'm going to keep a count of the things we get rid of.
Keeping count
So I mentioned my intention to MOH casually, like you do, and his reaction was that it seemed a bit extreme! See, I can't win [smiley face].
He (bless him) thought we probably didn't own that many items, or at least that many we wanted to get rid of. I however suspect we might (that's the Royal we there) but he's just oblivious to it, clearly I could have convinced him he was wrong but well, we all know that in married life it's important to choose where and when to put our OHs right.
And isn't it funny how we somehow have switched roles?
Now there's a challenge and a number to aim at I'm looking at things in a new light and things I no longer need, won't use again or are seriously past their best (and I can see no viable use for) are being rounded up. MOH soon recovered his position though and is threatening a t-shirt cull - as long as he counts them, I'm fine with that.
A spreadsheet for that
I also happened to mention that I had a very clever spreadsheet to help track the number of items we get rid of and what our new target is. I've kept it simple - it can be a bag of things to the charity shop, as long as I know the number of items it has in it, I'm fine. I don't need to detail every single item, although I did briefly consider it.
He knows me well and wasn't surprised to learn there was a spreadsheet, so we're currently going through the enthusiastic, teasing and annoying stage where I'm constantly being asked if it's in my spreadsheet. I know him well too, and he'll soon get bored and then he'll think it's useful.
So this year I'm going to see how close we can get to getting rid of 2016 items. That can be by giving things away, selling them, donating to charity or if they're past their best throwing them away.
However tempting it is I won't be including things that we'd normally throw away because that would defeat the object - although if I'm very close to the target later in the year I might revise that!! We'll see how we go.
I'm also conscious that it's the middle of March already and so I've missed the start of the year but, hey that's where we are and I don't think even I can wait until January 2017 to start this!
88 items down already
So after a clear out of our bookshelves following their DIY makeover and generally rounding up things already earmarked for the charity shop I've already got rid of 88 items, with another twenty or so at least ear-marked for similar treatment.
So with just the 88 items gone already, my total is already down to 1928 items left to find... Wish us luck - I'll let you know (every now and then) how we get on!
Do you think us brave, mad or is this something you'd consider as well? Leave a comment and let me know