ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE

Like many, the economic situation has hit us hard. Harder than some, for we are self-employed. Because of that I've taken to simplifying our lives and trying to live more frugally. We eat out much less, we've agreed to keep it to once a week, and we look for bargains wherever we can find them. I was thrilled recently to discover a local grocery store has five packages of meat for $19.99. Because they're family sized packages I can get as many as 10 meals from those five packages of meat! They're not always the most tender of cuts and take a little creativity to tenderize them, but it's fun.
I've begun following a blog FRUGAL AND SIMPLE which is filled with tremendous ideas and recipes. We tried her chicken and Rotel rice the other night and it was scrumptious! But, as usual, I digress. The challenge I speak of here is from her blog and goes along with my annual January de-cluttering. She challenges us to remove 365 items from our home during the next year. I admit, I'm too OCD for this to take 12 months, probably won't take me 12 days to be honest, but I like the idea of ridding my home of clutter, things that don't fit my decor, clothing that doesn't fit, and down right junk.
Today, for instance, I cleaned out the closet and cabinets in my laundry room. I found a bottle of waterbed matress cleaner and conditioner. We haven't had a waterbed in over 10 years! I also cleaned out my spice cupboard and condensed some cookie/cake decorations into one container and got rid of several out-of-date spices. Next is the pantry where I'm going to get rid of everything out of date and try to use my almost out of date pantry supplies during the next couple of weeks for dinners.
Yesterday, to the delight of my best girlfriend and her daughter, I cleaned out my side of the closet and got rid of three purses I no longer use (to their delight because they were all Dooney and Bourke purses). To my shock, I am now down to four purses in my closet. That's never happened before! Next closet is my shoe closet. I'm also going through my jewery and getting rid of everything I haven't worn in more than six months.
Our biggest thing we "decluttered" today was we said goodbye to the Chevrolet Blazer than has given us 10 years of great service. It went to a really good home and will help us with less expense on license and insurance.
Why don't you try accepting the challenge. I'm finding it a lot of fun to do!