Getting it Gone for Week 31 (Decluttering and Simplifying 2010)

Finishing what I had started seems to be the biggest accomplishment of this week.

We’d planned to stay home on Monday to enjoy the holiday and save a bit of gas, but I realized there was something probably waiting for me at my post office box that I wanted, so we ventured to the post office. Since we had to be out anyway, we made use of the increasingly rare trip in that direction to drop off some items at Goodwill that had been collecting on the kitchen table.

These odds and ends had been collecting there for at least six weeks, so I could even begin to tell you what was included. It seemed to be lots of coffee cups and knickknacks that I never would have wanted in the first place. I’m not sure where all this stuff comes from!

Among the items, however, was a Kirby vacuum cleaner that was once my mother’s. We’d been reluctant to give it to charity because that type of vacuum retains some value even after a couple of decades. But I hadn’t put much effort into locating someone who would buy it, so we finally donated it. I never thought it worked very well, and donating it meant we could get rid of its box of accessories, too, freeing up even more space.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that you donate rather than sell your clutter, so I took my own advice. Donating is quick and easy while selling takes research, perhaps advertising and negotiation. Why would I want to do any of that?

The table is now relatively clean and ready to serve as a staging area for even more donations.

The rest of my free time this week went to developing this blog and also to restructuring my book business a bit.

I’m working to find the right balance of writing, decluttering, bookselling and life in general. I haven’t found it yet, but every aspect of my life is improving.

I take that as a good sign that I’m (still or again) on the right track.

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.