Purge Party 2015

Oh, I am so addicted to purging, you guys! The more stuff I get rid of, the more I want to get rid of! Why is this so much fun??!

Here’s how it all began:

I don’t usually make New Years’ Resolutions, but on December 31st, I was reading some blog posts…

The first one I read was about making ridiculously easy resolutions to guarantee success – if you aim low, you have a better chance of making your goals! At first I thought this sounded a bit lazy, but by the end of the article, I was beginning to think he was onto something!

The reason mini habits work so well is that they are simple and easy to implement. Otherwise, like with other strategies, when we have a bad day, get overwhelmed, or run out of willpower, we’ll drop our goal and lose our progress.

If you ultimately want to get fit, aim for one push-up a day, every day. You may always do more than that, but never less. Mini habits have no ceiling, so do as much as you want when motivation is high.

But what happens when you aren’t motivated at all? No problem. Mini habits allow you to succeed even on your worst day. I’m going to repeat that because it’s important. Mini habits allow you to succeed even on your worst day. The low bar to action is a safety net to allow remarkable consistency. (How to Change Your Life With Mini Habits)

So I was still chewing on the idea of mini habits when I moved on to another blog post – the author was committing to getting rid of 2015 objects in 2015! I thought the idea was completely amazing, but TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!!

With a new baby, I knew there was no way I could commit to something that crazy.

But that was the moment when the two blog posts collided: I could do a mini habit! Purging one item a day seemed reasonable. And while I was at it, I could always purge more than one item, if I felt inspired. But getting rid of 365 objects in a year would be awesome!

My first day, I got rid of 20 things instead of just one! It was so easy to keep going, once I got started! It became a fun challenge for me each day, as I tried to think of more and more objects we don’t need or use, and would never miss.

There have been a few days when I only got rid of one item, but most days, I do a lot more than that! I’ve been doing this for 21 days, and I’ve gotten rid of 123 items! They’re sitting by the door, ready to be taken to the thrift store! Ben is worried that I’ll run out of things to purge long before the end of the year, but I keep thinking of our garage, and all the boxes in our basement. I’m pretty sure I’ll be kept busy for a long time! It is amazing how easy it is to find stuff that we never use. Ben was going to build shelves in our basement for storage, but I have a better idea – let’s just get rid of everything!

I loved this post on getting rid of things, rather than organizing them: The Secret to Getting Organized

I’m finding this to be true, over and over again. I was thinking of buying more dividers for a kitchen drawer so that I could find cooking utensils more easily, but when I went through the drawer a couple of weeks ago, I realized I didn’t use a bunch of the utensils anyway, and with them gone, I can easily find what I’m looking for, no extra organization needed!

I’m having so much fun, I actually think about this when I’m falling asleep at night, or driving somewhere, or feeding Everett. I mentally go through my closets and think about new areas to conquer. Imagine a house with only the things in it that you love and use and need! How light and free would that feel?!

And guess what – 2015 items in 2015 doesn’t look nearly as impossible! I’m not making it my goal (yet!), but we’ll see what happens!;)