!0 a day = 150 so far!

The dog enjoys resting atop a pile of give-aways.

Yes, indeed, I have stuck with my commitment to get rid of 10 items a day ever since I read about the idea 15 days ago.  Since I performed a major purge a year ago, I am not sure that I can continue to get rid of 10 things a day indefinitely.  But I do know that I now have 150 fewer items to move when moving day arrives.  ( I have not had any offers on my house yet, but eventually it will happen, I would think, and then we'll move, theoretically......)

Today I took The Child to an Asian Festival in 88 degree heat with very little shade to be found anywhere.  We had to park a mile from the festival site.  I should have anticipated the problem that might cause, since The Child has always had a low tolerance for heat.

He's at an unpredictable age (7th grade going into 8th grade).  Since he wants little to do with me these days, I thought I was hearing things when he said yes to my questioning about going to the Asian Festival.  So we went, despite the heat and the inevitably huge crowd. 

The Child wanted a parasol.  Since they were being sold for $6, I saw no harm in that, and I thought it might actually shield him from the hot sun.  

I was eager to check out the many food vendors, each of which offered exotic, tantalizing dishes.  But no.  The Child wanted a Powerade drink, a glance at the Chinese dancers, and  a quick trot through the market place to find that parasol.  And that was that. 

On our way back to the car, with the temperature rising steadily, I had the audacity to stop and take a quick photo of a stunning house we walked past:

Anyone who knows me (or reads my blog) knows that I have a thing for houses, especially old ones.  So I didn't think I was committing a crime when I shot this photo.  But The unpredictable Child found my action to be utterly intolerable.  He raged the rest of the way to the car, much like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum, promising that he would NEVER go anywhere with me EVER again - not even to the Irish Festival. 

He hasn't spoken to me since.

10 a day

It seems like such a reasonable goal - to get rid of 10 items per day.  I read about the phenomenon on the blog of a martial arts instructor, and found it rather appealing.   Above you can see my first 10 items, which include car wax, expired food and a long dead iPod Touch.  I will give away the brand new bird house, the toy and the ball of bath salts.  The rest will be tossed in the trash after I gaze at the collection for a while, proud of my new mission and its first day of accomplishment.

This follows a TV show on hoarding which I half watched yesterday.  Although I am not a hoarder (I despise shopping) I certainly am the type of housekeeper who easily lets things go.  In fact, I'm not a housekeeper.  I'm a house neglector.

Yes, even now, with my house for sale, with showings being scheduled on a day's notice, I struggle to keep things in order.  Doesn't it make perfect sense that a person with my shortcoming would be better off living the life of a minimalist?  The fewer the possessions, the easier the task of keeping them in order.

Besides, I hope to move in the near future.  Again, logic dictates that I'm better off moving fewer possessions.

The funny thing is, I've been purging for years.  Ask my friend Garnet.  He helped me when I first began - I believe the year was 2005.  We hauled carloads of stuff to the Volunteers of America and the recycling bins.  Carloads.  I recall Garnet commenting on the fact that I had carefully saved miniscule scraps of paper to be recycled.  He mused that perhaps my time could be better spent......

A year ago I purged in a big way, the biggest yet.  I had Salvation Army trucks haul away what looked like roomfuls of stuff.  My sister, who was a hoarder in the true sense of the word, cheered me on from Boston.  She understood the magnitude of what I was undertaking. I loved sending her photos of my newly sparse rooms.

Yet I still have too much! 

We'll see how this new 10-a-day challenge goes.  Please wish me luck.

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