365 Days | 365 Items Challenge
It was the last week to declutter my bedroom.
The past three weeks, I had decluttered my shoes, my closet and my jewlery…and it was time to declutter my purses and accessories.
Although some of my friends worship on the altar of Coach and Dooney & Burke…purses and handbags has never been “my thing”. Granted, I have no problem paying good money for a handbag, but when shopping, I’m never drawn to the “purse” section.
With that being said, I am a stickler for a purse that has “good hang”. I describe “hang” as the ability to hang from your shoulder while shopping, picking up kids, unloading groceries, etc. without either completely falling off your shoulder OR having one of the straps fall off your shoulder leaving your handbag WIDE open. (Because no one ever really uses the zippers on a handbag unless we are in NYC and afraid of being mugged.) I hate bad hang.
But enough about my “hang” issues, let’s get on to the victims.
Purses
Four purses. Similar styles. Very different colors.
The orange and blue purses were “freebies” from being a blog owner. Both handbags had great “hang”, but in the end just weren’t my style. The brown purse was a gift from a well meaning friend (who thankfully does not read my blog) and grey purse is a “going out on the town bag” that has been used very well and now has the rhinestones falling off. As much as I love it, it was time to let it go.
On a side note, it is DANG HARD to get purses into the donation pile and keep them there when you have a seven year old daughter. She was confused, perplexed, and then just plain MAD, that she wasn’t able to take all four of these purses and have them for her own personal use. I kept trying to explain to her the point of what mommy was trying to do. It didn’t work. I was just banished into the “mean mom” category for 24-hours. #thethingsIdofortheblog
Everything Else
The rest of this week’s items is a hodge-podge of different stuff that I wondered why I still had around in the first place.
Do you every do that? Start cleaning and think, “Why on EARTH is this even taking a small segment of space in my closet? I could easily give this space to some more jewelry!”
Yep, in looking at the scarf, hat, and sunglasses (that I haven’t worn in five years), I wondered why any of these stuff wasn’t thrown out years ago.
So seven items. The purses and scarf were donated. The rest of it was thrown in the trash.
Here is what I learned this month by cleaning my bedroom.
- If I don’t really LOVE it in the store, I should never buy it. This is hard for me because I am a social shopper. I go (and will continue to go) on weekend shopping trips with my girlfriends. I need to quit forcing something to work in order to be social. Stuff is stuff, regardless of how it was bought.
- Less stuff makes for easier choices. Even though I didn’t get rid of a ton of my jewelry, the less clutter has made it easier for me to find items and therefore wear them more often.
- It all matters how it fits now. Keeping things around on the hope they will fit in a couple of months after I lose 10 lbs is silly. Even if I lost 10 lbs, my body has changed and most likely the item won’t look right anyway. Plus, most likely it is incredibly outdated. With that being said, I also think there is nothing wrong with keeping a couple of items because of the memories they invoke. Don’t get rid of everything, just be selective.
Join me next week as I move from the bedroom into our four bathrooms. (Did I mention most of my beauty products are stored there? Have mercy.
The 365 Day Challenge is getting rid of one item per day over the next year to declutter your house and your life. You can see all past posts on the 365 Days | 365 Items Challenge.
Image credit: ronstik / 123RF Stock Photo
