100 things...

So, reorganizing closets and painting is fine and good, but this is the Year of Less (YOL), so I need to step it up and actually get rid of some stuff.  It can be a bit daunting to do.


I think the key for me is to break decluttering up into smaller, more manageable jobs.  I decided that I had one hour to find 100 things to get rid of.   I would have three categories, to throw away, to donate to charity, and to reuse in some way.   I decided to start with clothing since I have lost some weight and a few things are too big for me now anyway.


I thought, there is no WAY that my husband and I have 100 pieces of clothing to get rid of, but maybe we could get 40 or so from clothing and I could find the other 60 somewhere else in the house.  I am not a clotheshorse--I only own 4 pairs of jeans.  My drawers are stuffed full or overflowing on any given day, but that is only because I don't have any storage for seasonal stuff, right?


Oh, and I cheated a little bit.  Mr. YOL had come up with 18 clothing items the night before that he was ready to get rid of.


They included: 11 men's shirts and 7 pairs of men's pants.


So I was starting at +18 on my total.


Anyway, I started the timer at 60 minutes.  I could do this.  No problem.   I took a deep breath, and started on mine...




I did try clothing on at times to see if I should keep it.  If it was unflattering in the least, I got rid of it.  I was surprised at how many things I had that either still had the tags or that I had never worn.


After one hour I had:


6 items for the trash, an incredible 65 items to donate to charity, and 15 items to reuse!


86 items total!  All clothing!   I couldn't believe it.  I was so close to the 100 items...could I make it to 100 items on just clothing? I gave myself another 10 minutes.  Trying so many of these on was taking quite a bit of time.


After nine minutes, I was so close.  I had a minute left and I still needed 6 items....where could I look?.....


 AH HA!  The bra and sock drawer!!  Why didn't I think of this before?


I got rid of two bras and 4 pairs of socks.


And I was at 100 items with 15 seconds to spare.  Success!  Whew!


I packaged the stuff to be donated in old diaper boxes.  Here is a picture of it all:

Not pictured are the 16 items that I am going reuse by cutting them up for rags and the 5 shirts and a pair of underwear in the trash (silky fabrics so no good for rags).


Each box is about 2 cubic feet (1x2x1).  So, 10 cubic feet of clutter gone, and now I have room in my drawers for everything.


I didn't think that I was even close to having 100 items of clothing to get rid of, but I sure did.  It makes me wonder what else I have way too much of...