Week Fifty-Four, Items 506-510

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

I am not a fan of Kate Hudson, or of Matthew McConaughey, or of romantic comedies. I am a big fan of the yellow dress Kate Hudson wears in this movie. But I would have to like it a whole lot more to keep this DVD.


Blue shirt 3

I like this shade of blue, but this shirt is too plain. Even layered with something else, it's so basic that I just think it's boring. That means I never wear it, which means I don't need to keep it.


Pink polo

I bought this shirt years ago because it has a florentine embroidered on it. (I studied abroad in Florence in college and loved it.) I actually used to wear it quite a bit, but I haven't worn it in a long time. I'm not a huge fan of the color, and other types of shirts look better on me than polo shirts.


Yellow cardigan

I really like the material and color of this cardigan, but was never quite sure about the style. It ties at the neck, and I could never really decide whether I liked how it looked. But if I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, I certainly don't like it enough to keep it.


Kitchen shears

Somehow we wound up with two pairs of kitchen shears. One will definitely suffice, because kitchen shears aren't something we use all that often to begin with.


Progress: 510 items out of 800 = 63.75% done.

Week Fifty-Three, Items 501-505

Plastic ring

I'm sure that this has a use—it opens up so that you can attach things to it—it's just that I can't think of a use for it that would mean we need to keep it. So away it goes.

Random utensil

This was in our kitchen utensil drawer. I have absolutely no idea what it is or what it does. If I can't identify something, it doesn't belong in our house.

Cheese slicer

This is a cheese slicer. We're vegans. It could certainly be used to slice things other than cheese, but that's what we have knives for.

Wine opener

This wine opener was a gift, and the thought is much appreciated—goodness knows we like wine! But it's pretty bulky and takes up a lot of space. A smaller, simpler corkscrew works just as well.

Hot pot

This thing is perfect for college students or people who have small kitchens. Our kitchen is by no means huge, but it has all the appliances and space we need. So for years this has just sat, unused, in a cupboard.

Progress: 505 items out of 800 = 63.125% done.

Note: Apartment Therapy recently published a post with a list of five great quotes about the benefits of small, simple living. Check it out here!

Week Fifty-Two, Items 485-500

Drink books 1-3

I got these all as gifts not long after turning 21, and picked up a lot by browsing through them. But I haven't looked at any of them in a while. We have tons of amazing breweries and wineries in the Northwest, and when we drink, it tends to be local beer or wine. And I never mix whiskey with anything other than water or 7 Up. These mainly focus on cocktails, though, so they are probably better suited for someone else.

Big Fish

I like this movie, but have seen it a few times and just don't think it's one I'll watch again. The last time I watched it was probably four or five years ago. We have done some paring down of our DVD collection, but could definitely stand to do more.

File folder

My husband had this file folder sitting in his desk, unused. He doesn't need it and neither do I, so out it goes. I'm sure someone can use it.

Travel document case

This slim little pouch is intended to hold documents—tickets, itineraries, maps, that sort of thing—while traveling. But I have never seen my husband use it on any of the many trips we've taken. So it can go.

Book light

Book lights are great ideas, but this one is a little bit inconvenient. It needs to be plugged in, which means it can be a bit cumbersome. That means it doesn't get used, and that means that we don't need to keep it.

Mini flashlight

This tiny little flashlight would work in a pinch, but it isn't something we need to keep. We have a full-sized flashlight, as well as a pair of headlamps. And should we ever need a pocket-sized light, I would just use the Flashlight app on my phone.

Measuring spoons

I do most of the cooking in our house, but my husband does all the dishes. It works out well. Anyway, these measuring spoons need to be washed by hand. We have a number of things that can't go in the dishwasher, but apparently these are a particular pain to get clean. We have other measuring spoons, so these can go.

Plastic food containers 5-7

Getting yet more plastic out of our house, which is always a good thing. We got Pyrex food containers for Christmas, which is awesome, because it means we can get rid of the rest of our plastic food containers once we've washed them.


Engrish tchotchke

This was my husband's prize for winning a trivia game at a party a while ago. Engrish can be kind of funny, but this is obviously not something that we need to keep.

Pair of ball and paddle games

We got these toys in our stockings, and played with them for a bit on Christmas. Neither of us did very well. But even if we were somehow experts, we wouldn't need to keep these.


Christmas tissues

Another stocking stuffer item. Tissues are always useful to have around, especially at this time of year, but I don't know about using printed ones like this. So they can go.

Progress: 500 items out of 500 = 100% done.


Note: 500 items in one year! I'm enjoying the results, and want to continue de-cluttering for the rest of 2012 as well. My goal for the remainder of the year is an additional 300 items, which will bring me to a total of 800 items in just under two years. I think that's a respectable pace. I'm also planning to shift my attention this year a little bit; rather than just de-cluttering, I want to devote time and effort to making sure that the items we do have are stored in ways that maximize our space.

New goal progress: 500 items out of 800 = 62.5% done.

Week Fifty-One, Items 476-484

Deck of 51 cards

This deck of cards is missing the 10 of clubs. We have two complete card decks, so we don't need to keep an incomplete one. Maybe this deck could be used to do a really unimpressive card trick. "Pick a card, any card...okay, your card is NOT the 10 of clubs."


Christmas CD

There are only a few songs I really like on this CD, so I put them on my computer, and now I don't need to keep the CD. It's going to be much more convenient to just have the songs I like than to worry about skipping the tracks I don't really like. I have an empty blank CD case I can put this in before I donate it.


Whisk

Getting rid of this leaves us with two large whisks and one small one. We actually use all three of those, so three whisks it is. The three we're keeping all have nice comfortable handles, so this bare-bones one is the one that goes.


Blue clutch

I almost always carry a regular-sized purse instead of a clutch, so I don't need to keep this one. I have one that's almost identical to this clutch, but in a color I like far more, so I will keep that one instead.


Blue tank top

This tank top is my favorite color, so I'm a bit sad to get rid of it. But it's too short for me now, and though I've tried layering it a couple times, I am more comfortable wearing a longer shirt beneath a shorter one, rather than the other way around.


Peach sweater

This sweater is lightweight, which makes it perfect for layering in the spring and summer. But I never wore it all that often. The sleeves are a slightly odd length—a little too short—and the color doesn't look very good on me.


Documentaries 1-3

These are all documentaries that I watched in one of my classes last fall. I thought they were all interesting and thought-provoking, and I'd recommend any of them, but I can't think of a single documentary I've ever watched more than once. I was even able to borrow a copy of one of these from someone, so my copy is still wrapped in the plastic it came in. I won't re-watch these, so I don't need to keep them.


Progress: 484 items out of 500 = 96.8% done.