3,598 Items That I Got Rid Of

Okay so if you read my previous post about My Journey Towards Simplicity then you know I have been on this journey of going from a maximalist to becoming more of a minimalist.  You may have also read that the average American household has over 300,000 items in it. So today I thought I’d share with you some of my progress through the past couple of years on some of those items I have purged from my life.

First off, no I am not a hoarder, my house does not have piles of trash or stacks of boxes anywhere, I keep a neat tidy home pretty much all of the time aside from when my kids unleash their fury upon it.  I just used to buy any and everything I wanted, you could say I was a shopaholic (check out my confessions here) and I liked to keep things “just in case”.

Here I’ve compiled a list of items I have gotten rid of in the past two years…. (not all-inclusive but taken mostly from my donation receipts)

1 VCR (if that doesn’t date me I don’t know what does!)

1 vintage digital video disk along with 30 videos (okay so this one REALLY dates me!)

1 Jewelry Armoire

2 Jewelry boxes

40 pieces of jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, earrings)

2 boxes of over 45 different costume pieces

Over 400 articles of woman’s clothing

78 pairs of shoes

238 DVD movies

16 photo albums along with thousands of photos

3 bikes

1 Blackjack table

12 blankets/throws

Over 350 articles of children’s clothing

4 rugs

23 picture frames

8 board games

177 books

3 boxes of over 100 miscellaneous art supplies

112 magazines

4 suitcases

312 music CD’s

7 serving platters

23 cups

6 small kitchen appliances

44 pinup style hair flowers

10 hats

22 belts

1 stripper pole (no worries, I’ve still got 2 left. And no, I’m not a stripper, I used to teach pole fitness at a dance studio)

7 art prints

2 printers

1 computer scanner

1 paper shredder

1 original Nintendo with 9 games

1 Cello

2 chairs

25 statues/figurines

1 lamp

38 vacation souvenirs

19 shot glasses

1 tent

1 artificial Christmas tree

2 tennis rackets

4 pairs of sunglasses

4 outdoor concrete statues

2 decorative iron crosses

6 bookshelves

36 vinyl records

1 side table

300 + toys

31 pots, pans, baking sheets, Tupperware, and dishes

245 + crayons and markers

1 robot vacuum

1 curling iron

1 steamer

1 antique children’s car

1 treasure chest

12 garden tools

60 holiday decorations

150 + scrapbook stickers/cut outs/papers

30 travel size toiletry products

25 bath and body products

60 makeup products

45 nail polishes

3 pairs of nail clippers

1 bubble foot spa (kinda wish I would have kept this one)

3 cameras

6 sets of sheets

4 throw pillows

8 hair scarves

12 pinup prints

6 ceramic Halloween houses

12 Day of The Dead skeletons

4 recognition awards

A box of over 200 old cards/letters/correspondence

30 serving utensils (knives/spoons/forks)

120 hangers

20 miscellaneous electrical cords/adapters

1 children’s table and 2 chairs

3 make up bags

And hundreds more items I’ve surely forgotten on this list

So there you have it, an embarrassing long list of over 3,598 items I’ve purged from my home in the last couple years. That’s a lot of stuff! It felt really great getting rid of that much STUFF! But honestly compared to the average 300,000 items in a home it doesn’t seem like much of a dent but it sure was a lot of trips to the donation center and it did make an impact on my home and my mindset.

This journey of minimizing and decluttering is not complete, it is an ongoing process.  Even though I’ve gotten rid of those thousands of items, I still have so much more I have yet to get rid of (I hope my husbands not reading this haha!).  This list will continue to grow as I make time to get rid of what no longer serves me.  It’s crazy looking over this list of all the stuff that at one time I “thought I needed to keep”.  I don’t regret getting rid of anything on that list, okay maybe the bubble foot spa, but seriously I haven’t missed anything else on that list.

I’ve leaned the difference between wants and needs but I’m still human and it’s still hard to overcome the temptation of buying things that catch my eye.  I’m much more deliberate about how I spend my money, time and resources now though.

And the list shall go on….