Okay, so maybe "doing little things each day" was a little ambitious. But I'm not going to feel guilty for downgrading to "doing little things some days" to make our lifestyle simpler, cleaner, and cheaper.
My best recent "little thing" was to clean off the top of a dresser in our bedroom. Based on the content of the clutter and the depth of the dust, that dresser hasn't been cleaned off in a solid two years. Findings included: a pile of items meant to go in a baby book for Josie (which may become a "little thing" in the coming weeks), 2 broken nursing tank tops that I meant to return to the store while I was still nursing (over a year ago), lots of receipts for various clothing purchases, a necklace I'd been missing, 3 candles which have now been cleaned off and moved to more useful places, my "congratulations you graduated" packet from the graduate school, a pile of congratulations cards from when I defended my dissertation, and 3 pair of truly hideous sunglasses. Whew! That's now been cleared off so that only a few picture frames (which you can now actually see and appreciate, imagine that), my jewelry tree, and a single candle sit on the dresser top. What a difference for that little area!
A few days later, I tried to use that momentum to carry over to the dresser next to it, the top of which is the home to most of my jewelry. While I lacked the time/sleep/motivation to do the thorough job I envisioned (involving a dustbuster, windex, and a revolutionary purging of 90% of the jewelry I own), I did manage to review every piece of jewelry, assess whether I had worn it in the last year, whether it had legitimate sentimental value, and whether there were reasonable odds of wearing it in the coming year. Those that didn't meet at least 1 of those criteria got the boot - or rather, the box, which was then added to the tag sale pile. I declare it a successful 30-minute project, since I got rid of over 30 pieces of jewelry, rediscovered several pairs of earrings that I relegated to the "I don't wear this much" tray 2 years ago and now like a lot again, AND finally brought myself to throw away the trove of teeny jewelry boxes that serve no actual purpose but just seem like something you should keep. Except for the box my engagement ring came in. Some things, you don't mess with.
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