The Little Things for Week 10 (Decluttering and Simplifying 2010)

Big progress on little things marks week 10 of my decluttering project.

A record one-foot snowfall here in the Fort Worth area meant David and I were home all day Thursday and Friday. I hope we’ll be able to get a few things done Saturday afternoon and attend the concert we have booked, but the roads in our rural neighborhood are barely passable as of Friday night. Fortunately, it’s still thawing. With a high in the 50s predicted tomorrow, the melting should start in earnest.

We spent most of Thursday catching up on listing and other things related to the bookselling business. Since we need that income, business must come before cleaning and decluttering. (And some weeks — when I’m behind on my work — business comes before pleasure, too.) I did get several small projects cleared from my mind this week, however.

On Monday, I cashed in those 49 rolls of pennies that I found last week for $24.41 toward my Amazon DVD purchases. (You may remember that I cash in change for Amazon gift certificates at a Coinstar machine. The machine gives me a way to quickly get my change processed, and there’s no counting fee if you claim the money in a gift certificate.) That bowl of coins David found was even more valuable, getting us $43.81 toward some DVDs. I placed my order that evening. Although I’m trying to limit unnecessary purchases this year, I resell these DVDs for almost as much as I paid for them, making the impact on the bank account minimal, especially since I purchase them mostly with “found” money.

In my spare time throughout the week, I grabbed handfuls of papers and sorted them at every available opportunity. It seems there’s still plenty of clutter everywhere. Today, I cleaned the old medications and product samples out of the four drawers in the bathroom vanity. I even cleaned a dirty wall in the bathroom. Working on my taxes took up the rest of my available time this week.

Today was trash day, though, and we didn’t see any sign of a trash truck. There’s no way they could have made it through the snow. (We didn’t have any mail delivery these two days either.) Despite what sounds like minimal progress, our dumpster is once again overflowing, and so are the Goodwill boxes. Plus, we have bags of trash in the house with nowhere to put them.We’ve got to get those things cleared away before we can tackle anything else.

Gip Plaster

Gip Plaster is a web content writer. Previously a journalist, online bookseller and even a corporate advertising guy, Gip now specialize in writing high-quality content for websites — his and other people’s. Learn more here.