January Junk Jettison: The Plan

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions and don't really celebrate the weekend after Christmas as a holiday.  We've gone to a few NYE parties but I don't buy into the symbolism of it.  Unless it involves homework or cleaning, I am a fan of getting projects done quickly and right the first time, so there isn't much out there about which I think:  next year I'm going to do that differently.  I don't get why you would wait until a new year to fix or improve something.

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This year has proven difficult on the project front because there are so many books I have wanted to read and places I've wanted to go for a long weekend, but couldn't because of homework or projects or labs or whatever.  I have a list of books and movies calling my name - I'll be crossing things off that list as soon as I take my BIO final, which due to the snow likely won't happen until Monday now.  The semester is already ending late for some reason and because today and tomorrow are snow days, the semester's being extended until Tuesday, the 21st.  Don't they realize we're working adults and might not just be able to hang out in town until December 21st?  People may have family to visit or errands to run to prepare for the holiday and this is cutting it really close, especially for required on-campus testing like my BIO final.

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Anyways, enough about that.  In the spirit of crossing things off a list, of which I am a huge fan, Dave and I are going to use January to de-clutter our house.  I shop a lot and tend to accumulate duplicate items with good intentions, and we don't end up needing them.  For example, for a couple years, Dave was making miniature loaves of banana bread for members of his call center team, so whenever I found the disposable version of the pan on sale at Kroger, I'd pick up a bunch for the next batch of banana bread.  We accumulated many, many mini loaf pans and Dave hasn't made banana bread since, I think, 2006.  I was trying to get out a cake pan today all of them fell out of the cabinet onto me and I had a conniption fit.  Then I got inspired.

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There are 30 days in January.  Every day in January, we will toss, donate, or sell items in a quantity that corresponds to that day in the month.  January 31st's items will be 31, yes I said 31, mini loaf pans.  We'll still have 33 left.  How pathetic is that?  Maybe I'll convince Dave to deviate from our formula for the pans as an exception.  It's not looking good.

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Other items on the chopping block will be:

• stamps
• containers of themed sprinkles
• casserole dishes
• DVD's
• CD's
• blankets in the attic and linen closet
• Christmas ornaments:
• I've eyeballed at least 30 that I don't need or want aymore - see, the 2 hardest days of the month are done already!
• shoes
• curtains/sheers
• rolls of wrapping paper
• camera equipment
• random pens that are out of ink
• etc., etc.

As you can see from this, there are some things that would just be trash, like some old shoes and pens without ink, but others will go to Goodwill or Craigslist/Ebay.

Why am I putting this out there?  I find that when I publish to others a project plan and/or due date for a task, I am more likely to keep on schedule and stick to it, if for no other reason than the public flogging I'll receive if I phone it in or bail on it.  Now the entire Internet (more specifically, all 4 of you who may be reading this) knows I have a plan to de-clutter my house, and can hold me accountable.

Can't wait to get started!  I'll post progress updates on Fridays, starting 1/7/11.