THE-ONE-WEEK-PURGE

I love the thrift store.  I wouldn't call myself a shopaholic, I rarely go shopping, but stopping in on the thrift store is something I really love to do.  I like walking through the sections, looking through the books, the children's games, the home decorations.  I try really hard to come home with very little.  I often don't purchase a thing.  But sometimes I find something that just speaks what I want my home to feel like.  An old but carefully taken care of toy that I know is something my kids will appreciate.  And then I'll bring it home.  But then bring on the guilt.  It's not so much the money (unless I'm spending it on junk), it's the stuff.  THE STUFF people.  My home is filled with stuff.
I love how descriptive that word is.  Stuffing; filling; a filler; a filler of space.  Since the day we were married and were kindly given house decorations that someone else thought was pretty, we've been hoarding things that don't really reflect us and our family.  And it's building UP.  Up to the sky, our brains are filled with this clutter.  So it comes down to some sort of equation that looks like this:

Bring home more things + keeping things we don't want/need = Major Guilt and House Clutter

The purpose of this post is to change our math to this:

Get rid of more things + bring home less (what we really want here) = Yay!  I get to go shopping AND I love my home!

See?

Of course I can't do it all at once.  We, as a consumer society, are in a state of constantly acquiring.  It will always be coming in.  So for the math to work up there, it stands to reason that something (or more) has to be going out.  This feels like more of a lifestyle change than a one year resolution.
Recently I was reading a post here.  What a dandy way to view things.  Less is more.  Simplicity.  Rohan thrives on providing for himself.  He love to hunt, and gather.  Yet he is ridding himself of his beloved little boat, simply because he does not get enough use out of it.

I'm not nearly as cool or hardcore, but I sure want to do better.  So here's my proposal.  Each week tackle a new subject of the house.  This week: toys.  Go through our toys, go through them again.  Gather them from upstairs, the main floor, and in the closets of the basement.  Rid our home of those we do not need.  By the end of the week begin placing into bags the ones that I though we needed to keep earlier in the week.  I have to break my barriers down like that.  My idea is that something should have something or all of the following:

Is something useful/needed?
It is of high quality?
It is of great sentimental value?

So the toys that are of poor quality, are never played with, or are just toys I hate to look at go in a big box aimed at the thrift store.
Next week is kitchen cupboards.  The next will be dressers of clothes.  Next will be the laundry room.  The next can be books.  And it never stops, take out more, each week.  This is also a fabulous way to organize the house on a continual basis.
So, I'm starting today.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Do it with me?