grand plan

I have too much stuff. I've always had too much stuff. I've always been labeled a 'pack rat.' Even when I gave away bags and bags of my belongings -- precious to me because of the memories I associated with them -- because I was tired of the supposed-to-be-lighthearted nickname, I was still know as a keeper, a collector, a pack rat.

Over the years, I've gone back and forth, trying to purge myself of as much stuff as I could comfortably part with and trying to accept that I am just a person with too much stuff.

I've gotten 'better' about my tendency to hold on to things (although you might not be able to tell by the state of my apartment). I've decided that instead of collecting everything, I'll choose certain things that I'll allow myself to collect. Books, definitely. Some magazines. I don't know what else?

Anyhow. The grand plan? Find one thing to give away, every day for thirty days. Why? Eh. I'm in a purging mood. I need a bit less stuff. I truly have things I haven't really done much more than glance at for years and years, so why hold onto it?

So, get ready for some crappy pictures (I'll just be using the camera on the computer), as I try to keep myself on track by logging my outgoing stuff.

I started doing this two days ago, so here's what I've put in the giveaway bag so far:


Halloween party invitations. We've never thrown a Halloween party, nor have we ever planned on throwing one. I'm pretty sure that Cardo bought these for me at some point because he knows I like Halloween. At some point (we've had these for years), Pic found and opened them. I'll put them in a bag and hope that someone browsing at Goodwill will be able to use them.





An activePAD thingie-ma-bob. Yeah. I've never even looked very closely at this thing, but I'm pretty sure that I get the general idea. We were given it before Pic was born and I really did think that I would use it with her, but, well, no. So, out it, and the three booklets that we got with it, goes. [Yeah, I suddenly had no idea what verb to use at the end of that sentence.]






Okay, so I shouldn't pick three things in one day, but I did. The first is a stress-squeezy thing I got while I was in high school (and very into the whole alien-life thing). It's still in the little mesh bag I got it in. I used to always carry this in my backpack. Then, we have a dusty, grey toothbrush. I once read this trend-tip in Seventeen (oh, the things I admit here) that said to use pliers to remove the bristles, place the handle in boiling water and then, when the handle was soft, shape it into a bracelet. Obviously, I never got past buying the toothbrush. And it has been with me for the past fifteen years. [This one went in the trash. I have enough household-cleaning toothbrushes.] Finally, something that I don't think was actually ever mine. I have no idea how I ended up with this lizard bead thing, so into the bag it goes.

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P. S. Yeah, the pictures. I know.