I Purged 115 Items This Month!
When I first heard that Emily from Live Renewed was challenging herself to declutter her home of 100 items in April, I thought that was there was no way I could do it. Â Good for her, but 100 things is a lot!
Since we moved into our new home last June, I haven’t unpacked much of the things that were cluttering up our apartment. Â That is probably why one of my friends burst out laughing when I told her about the challenge. Â “Rebekah!! Â You don’t HAVE 100 things to get rid of!!”
I have to admit that I agreed with her, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.
I started with the bathroom and got rid of a rather impressive amount of stuff. Â Impressive or pathetic. Â Either one fits.
Here are some of the highlights of my bathroom purging:
Outdated Medication: Seriously, I had some old stuff. Â Like expired in 2005 kind of old. Â Plus I got rid of 2 packs of expired birth control. Â Sure, I might take an expired Tylenol for a headache, but expired birth control??? Â Um. Â No.
Lotion Samples: I love getting freebies in the mail, but I just never seem to use the lotion samples. Â I stopped requesting them months ago, but I still had tons of them. Â I hate throwing things away that I think others can use, so I passed these on to friends.
I gave away 15 bathroom items, recycled 8 items and threw away 25 items.  In total I got rid of 48 items just in my bathroom!
The rest of my purged items came from:
- 14 extra wire hangs in my closet
- 8 books I was borrowing from friends
- 29 packs of coupon inserts saved from Sunday papers (By the way, that was 2.2 pounds of coupons! Â Wow!)
- 4 DVDs
- 2 VHS Tapes
- 10 clothing items from Grace’s closet
I purged 115 items! Â Honestly, it was not hard. Â The hardest part was taking the time to get rid of the things rather than find things to purge.
It is pretty sad if you think about it…
Could you purge 100 items in 1 month? Â Check out the other posts linked to Live Renewed Declutter Challenge for inspiration.
We cleaned out the attic this month! The easiest place to find 100 items! The back of our trailblazer was packed solid of stuff we donated. Plus we pitched stuff and sold stuff on craigslist. Feel great to purge!! I should tackle the bathroom next.
Good luck in the bathroom, Jennifer! I hope you aren’t as much of a hoarder as I seem to be! 🙂
I purged my toiletries last fall. But I had a who knew I had so much clothing to get rid of? Thanks for letting me know about the link up.
Dorothy, I have tons of clothing that I probably SHOULD get rid of, but that is another thing I really struggle with. Who am I kidding? I struggle to get rid of EVERYTHING!!
Woot – way to go Rebekah. And no… I wouldn’t chance it with expired birth control lol ;)!
Yeah, it didn’t seem like a risk that I was prepared to take. 😉
I’m always amazed when I find outdated medication or food. I’ve found some pretty old stuff!
You did an awesome job. 115 things is great! It feels so good to say goodbye to it.
Stacy, this is almost embarrassing to say, but… I found some parsley flakes in my cupboard that expired in 2005. Crazy, right?? I’m glad I’m not alone though! haha!
When I moved from California to Chicago last year, wow….I was embarrassed at how much stuff I had accumulated in my home. My bathroom though seemed the worst! Half used products I didn’t like, samples that I never tried, cosmetics and medication/vitamins that were half used and no good I just never threw away for some reason or another! It felt good to get back to basics!
Seriously, Shannyn! What is it about a bathroom that makes it collect so much junk!??! I got rid of all that stuff even AFTER moving to a new home just 10 months earlier.
I just purged 51 items from my bathroom closet! Crazy. Why in the world did I have half empty dripping bottles and tubes of stuff??!? Yuck! Just thought you would be able to appreciate the feeling of accomplishment! 🙂
I’m telling you, toiletries must breed like bunnies in the back corners of bathrooms! It is insane how stuff piles up in such a small room! Good job, Sharon. It feels pretty good, huh?
Bunnies, dust, ‘stuff’ and toys……. alot of similarites!!! 🙂
Looks like you are doing great!! I LOVE decluttering. I started about 4 years ago and at first I had a hard time learning to part with some things. I guess I’d say I was a “sentimental packrat”…I didn’t hold on to a TON of stuff, but anything with memories attached, I felt guilty getting rid of. But since then I’ve gotten so much better. I love having so many fewer items. It’s crazy that even having been in a 900-sq ft apartment when I started, we had SO much stuff (without overflowing the place), and it’s cool to see that we really CAN do without so much of it.
Bryn, I love that term “sentimental packrat!” I definitely have a problem holding on to things that have any kind of memory attached to them. Thanks for the encouragement!