have I mentioned "Do a Dozen" yet? There are chores I know I need to do; I haven't forgotten them, I'm thinking of them and then decide they're just too overwhelming. Like folding the 5 loads of laundry DH did. So, I tell myself I only need to "do a dozen"--fold 12 things. Put away 12 things off the dresser. I get to define what a "thing" is--maybe it's all 7 pencils that count as one "thing." Or, if I'm feeling really overwhelmed or short on time, every single pencil counts as one, and I quit early. Usually I decide that socks don't count (though I do take them out and put them in their sorted piles, I just don't count them), and so 12 would have been 27 if I'd added in all the socks. Or I decide that anything I'm going to throw away off the dresser doesn't count, and only things being relocated count--speeds that up fast, too. Sometimes I realize I've accidentally gone over--oops, did 18, my bad! Sometimes I'll say, "gee that went fast, I'll do ANOTHER dozen."

I just have junk to deal with -- good thoughts and wishes to those with health problems! Magazines are not my issue. My town's yearly bulk pick up is next week and I've been cleaning out my garage, basement and attic. The basement is basically done except for about 50 cans of paint that have to be dried out and discarded. That's a project that will be on-going for awhile. Don't keep paint cans is my advice. Pour some into a small jar to keep and get rid of the can. If you need more than a touch-up, go buy a quart. I have a huge walk-up attic that has been a dumping ground for everything we have not wanted to deal with for years. I have been filling contractor bags with junk my kids brought home from college (youngest graduated 4 years ago!). I'm trying to recycle what I can, but I have reached the conclusion that I can't let that hold me up. And I have to go through everything - I found some gold earrings my daughter said she's been looking for and there are papers with SS#'s and other sensitive info. Whenever I've upgraded a lamp or a chair the old one has gone to the attic for the kid's apartments. Guess what - they don't want my old stuff! I have a charity picking up anything worthwhile. It's gotten to the point that I have run out of room to sort things around the piles that have to go out. I've hired a few young men to help me get it all to the curb this weekend. I can't wait to see how much space is left. Another purge will have to happen before it's really cleared out, I'm sure. You would not believe the electronic equipment that needs to be disposed of - who has 7 turntables? ME! The garage is a whole other problem. There are cabinets that are filled with half-empty cans of solvents and stuff like that. I have to box it up to wait for the toxic chemical dump day. The cabinets are going on the curb. I think that cabinets in the garage are a bad idea - the more storage you have, the more junk you keep. My DH used to work in a hardware store so we have discontinued displays of entry sets, doorknobs, and towel bars, plus coffee cans filled with every size screw and nail. That's all going to a Habitat-type organization near me. It takes a lot of effort to keep stuff out of landfills, but I'm trying.

We moved out of our house last year for a gut remodel of our kitchen, refinishing of main floor wood floors and replacing upstairs carpeting with wood and painting of walls & trim throughout. We were able to store some things in our attic during this time, but all our furniture was in a storage pod. It was exhausting cleaning this place out. Not the big stuff, but every closet, cabinet and drawer. We had just cleared out my parents' home of 30 yrs. when my Mom passed and set my Dad up in an apartment nearby. So our energy gauge was depleted from the start. We had to do it, though, as I'd been without a working range for 2 yrs. and the refrigerator had begun to fail. I swore I would never, ever buy anything else for the house that wasn't essential. I have always kept a clutter-free home in my living spaces, but my closets and cabinets and attic were where all the overflow stuff lived. Our DS moved overseas 6 yrs. ago so we have most of his accumulated worldly treasures in our attic. And DD has a fair share up there, too, as her little Cape has little storage. Aside from a few indulgences - like new glass pieces for my BD - I've managed to live by the "one thing in/one thing out" rule for the past year. This post is further incentive for me to keep at it ;)

JJ, when you put the photos into a different format and when you singled out the photos, they came into focus for others. That is one of the values that you get from both culling out the insignificant ones and organizing the reamaining ones. The importance or the significance of what is left comes into much sharper focus. I am in the middle of culling and organizing our photos and I it has become evident to me that much value and appreciation is stuck in oblivion when the photos are a mess in boxes. They must be curated and organized to tell the story. If not, they are like a bowl of alphabet soup with letters that don't spell anything. I had started a post about organizing photos, if you are interested. One example is that we had a box of photos that FIL had brought home from WWII. They had been languishing in a box that was casually shoved into a drawer and mostly forgotten about. I took them and put then into a small book and placed the book on the dining table. Hubs picks it up and finds himself absolutely drawn into them as if he is seeing them for the first time. That is not the case, He knew about them. He had just forgotten about them because they have been hidden in a drawer in a box for so long. After composing them in a book and noting the inscriptions that FIL wrote on the back, they have become a personal story of a young man who turned 19 years old and arrived for D Day one day later. He was but a boy when he went to be a part of a tank crew in Europe. This is his story and now it has been revealed for us to share. I think that it is priceless and to think that it lingered untold for so long. He told us his story and we just relegated it to a hidden box. I find that to be rather sad in retrospect. In organizing our photos, I have gained and experienced some revelations and realizations of who and where we have come from and who lurks in the heritage of my grand children. Life's moments and lives that have gone have come forward and I am truly enjoying the journey. It is important to cull out the debris so that you can see the value of what you have. I have yet to discard the rejects. They will get one more pass through before they go out. In my estimation, I have rejected somewhere around one third of what was being kept.maybe a bit more than that. Now, the remaining ones are being divided into two collections, one for each of our grown children. I plan to keep none for us. I want to hand them down to my kids in a format that they can be seen in. I don't want to pass down a mess of stuff that has no voice. After the photos are taken care of, I plan to include some genealogy documents in the pages. It seems a perfect compliment to the photos and will explain some of them. I have also made sure that the kids have all the information that they need after I am gone and not have to go searching for bank accounts, revolving charges on credit cards or any of the stuff that they are going to need to know. I even have a document of all my passwords for any forum or bank account, etc.