Progress

Most of my clothes are gone ... including some of my favourites. But I'm a new size now and I have to believe that I can maintain this. Keeping fat clothes around will just become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Just look at all the closet room I have now! It's temping to start filling it again. Shopping is loads more fun when practically everything looks good now. But do I really need 10 pairs of jeans when I do laundry everyday? I don't want to stuff my closet. I want to see and WEAR what I have for a change. I'm also going to stop saving my clothes for a special occasion. Every day is special. I can look good and still be at home by myself. Why not enjoy what I have?

Food Purge - D's Mystery Loaf

What the f*ck is T.V.P. and why did I buy this? Textured Vegetable Protein. I bought it because I want to be a hip urban hippie even though deep down I'm just a plain ol' meat and potatoes kind of girl. So what to do with all these single-purpose specialty ingredients bought for recipes that I will never try again? I can't subject the unopened stuff to the Food Bank -- I don't even think they'd let it in their back door. And I can't bring myself to throw out food that's perfectly good. I'll have to inventory it and commit to cooking it all up by the end of this year. Of course it could lead to wasting endless hours researching online recipes (an already contentious issue at home). I'll wing it and see what I come up with!

Treasured Family Photos

Big family project looming overhead to scan/convert all my family pictures and slides. There are hundreds of photos crammed into tattered photo albums, busted shoe boxes and over-stuffed envelopes ... screaming at me to get started. The task is so daunting. Why can't I just get on with it? Perfectionism is what's paralyzing me. I want this to be perfect -- each photo carefully selected, all journals superbly written. I want this new family album to bring tears to my parent's eyes. And yet when I look through the photos of us staring at the camera, standing shoulder to shoulder, they don't even come close to capturing my childhood. The memories are all there in my head and I want so badly to express them in the most creative way I possibly can! This picture's an exception. While I don't remember this specific picnic, I do remember lazy Sunday afternoon picnics with my parents, a blanket and a bucket of chicken. We were outside, we were together, we were happy.

So how to get on with this? Baby steps. Start by scanning in the pics and just see how it takes shape from there. Trust your creativity. You can do this.

Gift ware

Nothing says "I really don't know what you want or need and I don't know what your taste is, but feel obligated to get you something" more then gift ware. Why do they even call it that -- it's not much of a gift. My spouse despises it -- chotskies, dust-collectors, tacky. If I start purging, my extended family will eventually notice it's missing -- "what happened to that Christmas tray I got you?" Worse yet might be the desire to buy me more -- "I thought you had more serving bowls then this, I'll pick some up for you next time I'm at Winners". PLEASE NO -- save your money, I don't need more gifts.

This one's tough because I enjoy entertaining -- every aspect of it, from carefully planning my menu weeks in advance, to spending the day after leisurely tidying up (and slightly hung-over :-)). I love to watch my guests enjoying my food and each other's company and am attached to some of the dinner wear that's been with me through it all.

So what to the purge? If it's not my favourite, then it's gone.

Bonnebell Circa 1978

I can't believe how old my makeup is. Why does it last so long? Because I don't wear it -- I just collect it. No amount of expensive Estee Lauder makeup can get me that polished look I have in my head either -- 1980's trampy sunburned is what I usually get.

And why all the lipstick? I really dislike the feeling of anything on my lips ... except another pair of lips ... soft and supple ... latched on to his lower lip, sucking, nibbling, licking.... k - focus -- back to the purge.

65 pairs of socks

WTF? How did I accumulate this? Stocking stuffers -- an easy filler for the mandatory stockings I make us do for each other at Christmas. Who wouldn't appreciate a new pair of comfy socks? But for some reason mine never wear out. Some of these socks date back to HS! I have about seven favourites -- the rest are saggy, too thick, itchy or the wrong colour (i.e. bought to match a particular outfit that is long gone). Some have specific uses -- golf, hiking skiing, skating. The sports are history but their socks remain.

I especially love the fuzzy slipper socks. Picture this : You've just come in from playing in the snow with the kids on a typical February afternoon and your feet are frozen solid. Useless 'Hot Chily' socks did nothing for you. Hot chocolate, you say? No thanks, just let me run upstairs, rummage through my sock drawer and pull out these blasted made-for-the-occasion chenille socks.

Alright, enough whinging about the socks. What do to? Can't just re-organize the drawer. Must purge some.

the purge is on

Avoir is one of the first verbs you learn in French class. How ironic that 'to have' is taught before 'to be'. My very recent spirtual awakening (can I call it that) has taught me that simply being is the key to happiness. 'Having' leads to 'wanting' -- the desire to have more than you have and to thus never be happy with what you have. So here I am with more than I could ever want and all I really want to do is to hold on to my loved ones and torch all my belongings. I love this image: "And they packed up their belongings and fled". Only we'd need a 30' moving truck to cart all this crap behind us.

How did I get here? I used to love to shop and bring home new treasures. Today those very same treasures disgust me. They remind me of all the time and money I wasted accumulating unnecessary junk -- junk that I have to store, dust, repair and trip over on a daily basis. And when my house was bursting at the seams with all my crap, what did I do but buy a bigger house to store it. No more. The time has come to seriously purge.

I'm motivated more than ever to clean house. But here's the catch -- I don't like waste and I'm terribly nostalgic. I also have a dozen projects on the go and feel the need to hold on to their associated supplies.

Like most things I tackle, I need a plan. Here are the problem areas:

clothes - dropped 2 sizes thanks to some positive lifestyle changes; fat clothes, be gone!
books - cook books, university text books, lame self-help books, binders of ancient IT courses and software manuals ... be gone!
housewares - candles, vases, all sorts of useless entertaining crap to pitch; but what will we do if we start entertaining more? as if. Be gone!

k - I'll add more to this later. Time to start purging.