2017 = SIMPLIFY

I know I know... I've said this before on New Years days in the past. But somehow some way, we accumulate SO much crap ! Where does it all come from ?? I'm even on disability and spending 1/4 of what I used to spend, and there's still SO much stuff in my garage, shed, closet, music room, etc.

I've already started gathering up stuff for a yard sale and for online sales.
I have a mindset to help me: I'm going thru a little each day and pretending I only have 6 months to live So when I pick something up, I ask myself if I've used it in the last 3 months and do I want my wife to have to deal with it when I'm gone ?
Cuz honestly, while we are promised eternity in God's Presence, we are NOT promised tomorrow. One of us lucky dogs here at CHM will get to be the first to enter His rest. And if it's me, I don't want to leave my poor wife with tons of JUNK that I pack-ratted away over the years. Thus the goal to SIMPLIFY !

I lived in the past without all this stuff, I can do it again

Is the proper grammar "pack-ratted" or "packed-rat"?

My wife and I have been sifting through and getting rid of stuff each year for several years now.  We're just tired of clutter and storing junk.

Quote :

Is the proper grammar "pack-ratted" or "packed-rat"?

Yes ! I honestly don't know where some of it comes from ! I think gremlins come into our house every so often and deposit junk in corners and drawers.

That's certainly a possibility!

One of the  things we have done is join a page on Facebook called 2017 things gone in 2017.  We are going to try hard to reduce that many.  I may start getting rid of more CDs that I never play or have not played, even in digital format, in years.  That would get us closer quicker.

That sounds good = 2 thousand and 17 things gone

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I know I know... I've said this before on New Years days in the past. But somehow some way, we accumulate SO much crap ! Where does it all come from ?? I'm even on disability and spending 1/4 of what I used to spend, and there's still SO much stuff in my garage, shed, closet, music room, etc.

I've already started gathering up stuff for a yard sale and for online sales.
I have a mindset to help me: I'm going thru a little each day and pretending I only have 6 months to live So when I pick something up, I ask myself if I've used it in the last 3 months and do I want my wife to have to deal with it when I'm gone ?
Cuz honestly, while we are promised eternity in God's Presence, we are NOT promised tomorrow. One of us lucky dogs here at CHM will get to be the first to enter His rest. And if it's me, I don't want to leave my poor wife with tons of JUNK that I pack-ratted away over the years. Thus the goal to SIMPLIFY !

I lived in the past without all this stuff, I can do it again

Some days I'm tempted to grab a can of gasoline and a match. 

If you care to read or learn more, I would recommend Vernard Eller's The Simple Life and the Minimalism documentary on Netflix.

My wife and I are doing this in 2017 as well. I told her my standard is if it doesn't provide any utility or it's something I would buy again ASAP after losing it, I'm getting rid of it. I have so much that if I lost it or someone stole it, I wouldn't worry about replacing it that quickly. I'm definitely learning the difference between "want" and "need".

I have a couple of boxes of VHS tapes, a few clothing articles, and some youth resources that I no longer use to send to Goodwill.  Be about 40 items in all.  Threw away an old non functioning digital camera that was my dad's.

Minimizing is healthy. I've already got a huge stack of crap in the middle of my garage to sell at a yard sale (first warmer Saturday that comes)

I have 49 items from old VHS tapes to a couple of unused wallets to a couple of youth resource books I've never used to some old cups.  These are all going either to Goodwill or the local Community Help Center.  I don't really have the space to store stuff for a yard sale.  My last couple of attempts at those didn't do so well anyway.

I need to decide what CDs I'm going to sell/give away, and actually follow through on that. Living in Canada is something of a barrier to shipping, but now that I live only 45 minutes from Vermont and that my girlfriend and I go there once a month, the option is suddenly more open.

I'm going to have to give away some of my clothes as well. A lot of my shirts have some waxy stuff under the armpits, probably from when I used a certain type of deodorant and didn't notice the wax until it was too late. I could probably stand to get rid of some shoes and other miscellaneous things as well.