I’m still purging better than I ever did.

Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid.

(Oh man you guys. I just googled to get those lyrics right and my GAH that video is wonderful. Elton, you’re a real treasure.)

Moving on…

You know what they say about best laid plans, right? That they tend to get abandoned inside of two weeks?

My 31-day purge isn’t totally abandoned. I’m still chugging along. It did sort of fall off the rails a little bit there, because once I missed a day or two, then it wasn’t so easy to just finish one thing. I’d finish one thing and then instead of feeling like “oh, yay! I’m awesome, go me!” it was more like “oh okay, I’m done that thing but I’ve still got xyz to do so I can get caught back up and ughhhhh I’m always behind, who even cares, I’m gonna go take a nap.” Which doesn’t feel great.

So instead of dwelling on what I didn’t get to yet, I’m going to recap here what I have completed and then I’ll just jump in fresh today. I think I’ll still number them out the same way they are here, and then I can come back and add in an update once I get to the ones I missed.

Day 8: The Car

The first hiccup in my plan hit on day 8, when I was supposed to clean out the car. It was cold that day, and I decided meh, leave it for the weekend, it’s supposed to warm up. (It did, and I did clean out the car then, but skipping a day of purging put me on the road to lazytown.) But no more! REBOOT!

I emptied out all the trash and all the stray socks, have not yet gone as far as vacuuming, but I did buy a little handvac the other day, so I’m excited to try it out. I also picked up a small trash can to try and keep the car from becoming “a little dumpster”, which is a moniker my vehicles have held true to since waaaay back in high school, when I went to give my friend Mike a ride home and I really can’t do the phrase justice, but when he went to get into the car, he was all “aww! It’s like a little dumpster!” and it was in a very endearing tone, like he just couldn’t handle how cute my little moving pile of trash was. In any case, I’m gonna try and keep it nice.

 

Day 9: Bathroom Cabinets

Day 9 also proved challenging. It’s not done done, it still needs some organizing, but I did do a good amount of purging this day. We determined that yes, I am a hoarder. I must be. Otherwise why would I have (neatly put away) two broken pairs of eyeglasses, seven glasses cases, more than sixteen empty contact cases, seven things of eye drops, four unopened boxes of hair dye,  maybe two dozen unopened bottles of proactiv face wash (all expired years ago)… I could go on.

If Hoarders has taught me anything, it’s that I am one personal tragedy away from sleeping on a chair in the corner, surrounded by adult diapers and cats.

I also took this opportunity to put this vinyl window treatment on the bathroom window. I bought it maybe a year ago, and it’s been sitting in my back hall closet since then. I bought it and then thought maybe it would just look too tacky? But no. I actually really love it.

Much better than the dirty old beige rental curtain, no? It only took me four years to do it.

Day 10: Bills.

Can you pay my billlllz can you pay my telephone bills, can you pay my automobilllls.

I don’t think you do.

Ok but fur serrious. Today was bills, and actually not a thing I needed to do much for, really. We’re pretty much totally paperless now, I pay everything online and I’m fairly good at staying on top of things. I did shred a whole bunch of old crap like Verizon statements dating back to maybe 2006 though. So that was good.

Soooooo you and me are through.

Day 11: Freezer Food.

My freezer is another one that’s still a work in progress. I need better organization and I still need to go through the basement freezer, but I made an attempt. Which brings me to this- did you know that a Costco cake tastes pretty decent even after sitting in a chest freezer for over a year and a half? I’m just saying, you know, I’d heard that maybe if you had one that somebody had brought to a first birthday party and then you forgot to serve it and it got chucked into the freezer beneath a bunch of bread and whatever and then you took it out and ate it when your kid was closing in on three, it would still be pretty tasty with a nice bottle of red. I’ve heard. From a friend.

Also. 19 bananas in there, my friend. Bread making BONANZA. Bread and muffins till the eggs run out!

Day 12: Medications.

Okay, this is where I got lost, mainly due to wanting some new containers. Will tackle this one this afternoon.

Day 13: Game Boards.

Again, I got as far as taking stock of what we have. Quick question- how many versions of Monopoly is too many?

Day 14: Books.

Ha. Uhhhhh yeah this one’s gonna be tough. Will report back.

Day 15: Tupperware.

I want to end on a productive note, so let’s go out with this one. I’ve been wanting to make the jump to glass leftover containers for ages and ages, and haven’t for one reason or another. But the cabinet was full to the point that the “crack the door and chuck something in and hope for the best” method of organization was in place, and it was finally time. I went through the containers, threw away the ones that didn’t have lids, threw away anything stained or broken, and threw away any and all yogurt containers (not even sure why I try to use those, every single time I put a leftover in one it ends up languishing alllll the way in the back until we hit “something in here smells like death” stage of fridge cleanliness.)

And then I went out and I got new glass containers, and while I don’t quite have the number up to what I’ll need, I’ve made a start. I did keep a small selection of my old containers to kind of fill in the gap until I get my hands on a few more glass ones.

So much better though. So pretty to look at.

And on that note, I’m going to leave you. I’m not going to stress over the fact that I’m behind, I’m just going to tackle one thing today.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.