My Strange Brain

I think we’re technically in week 5, but since I’ve fallen behind, I kinda stopped keeping track. So far, we’ve boxed up 475 (ish) items to be sent to other people and/or places. A few cookbooks are heading to the library, a few kid clothes and shoes are being handed down, a bunch of my vintage craft stuff is being sent to other lovers of oldish stuff. But the lions share of it is heading to the charity shop. We’ve dropped off three boxes and two bags there in recent weeks, and have about 5 more boxes on the porch ready to go.

Here’s where I disclose that I did buy some yarn last week, at the same charity shop that we’re taking all our leftovers. Seven balls of a pretty blue-gray wool blend, three skeins of Scheepjes cotton satin, and one skein of orange-pink Plymouth Encore (obviously some other local knitter has been decluttering too). I should probably subtract that from my total items, but I think I’ll instead find 11 balls of yarn from my stash that I don’t want anymore. I’m sure that someone somewhere wants all that fun fur that I bought before I knew better.

While the main living rooms of our house remain largely unchanged, the basement is beginning to look different. Where there were stacks of boxes obscuring two sets of shelves, the shelves are now accessible. They are still full, though, and will be gone through soon. The kids’ closets and dressers are less full. Mr Deplume and I have room to spare in our closet now, too. The floor is now free of shoes and trousers and shirts we don’t wear. There are miles to go, but I’m beginning to get excited about the very real possibility that this endeavor just might work.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was going to pull it out this week. I felt horrible about failing before the 14th of my 100 days of this decluttering challenge, but it was just one of those weeks.*  But then Mr Deplume swooped in on Saturday and rescued my challenge. He went into the kids’ rooms and cleared them of most of the clothes that don’t fit anymore. I helped some, but he gets all the credit for it. He also went through his own clothes and shoes, as did I, and we got 100 items packed up and in boxes. They haven’t been delivered to the charity shop yet, but that’s on the top of tomorrow’s to-do list for yours truly.

I already have a few cookbooks stacked up for this culling this coming week, and I just may spend a portion of the next couple of days clearing out some baby clothes that made it to the basement after a garage sale a couple of years ago. I have to work at a wedding this weekend, though, so there’s a good chance that Mr Deplume will rescue me again.  It’s the story of our lives. I come up with some grandiose idea, and just as I come to grips with my failure to reach goals I set for myself, he saves the day in the eleventh hour. He’s a good egg, that one.

* Who am I kidding? They are all those weeks. I just need to figure out how to function more efficiently. I don’t see it happening anytime soon, though.