Decluttering challenge, day 3

Here we are for another peek into the clutter that has attempted to take over my life.  It’s not going to happen though.  Nope.  I’m removing it one piece at a time.  Permanently.  And not replacing it with anything new (that’s why I thought January would be the perfect time for me to do a no spending month…no spending except for essentials.  I mean, you’ve got to feed the kitties, have gas for the car, pay your bills.  But you don’t have to buy that unbelievably expensive coffee or that cute pair of earrings, right?).

Anyhow, this was a little tougher for me today since I was battling a reaction to the antibiotics my doctor put me on.  I woke up with both eyes swollen, my cheeks and neck bright red, chest and upper arms were pink and itching.  Yep, had that happen before.  I took two Benadryl and called my doctor’s office.  They didn’t call me back until after noon, but that was okay since the two Benadryl knocked me out for over six hours.  When they did call, they told me not to take any more of that prescription (uhh…okay…) and that they’d called in a different one for me to take.  Oh, and that they’d added that particular antibiotic to my allergy list…good idea, huh?

I don’t know about anyone else, but Benadryl leaves me feeling groggy for hours after I take it.  So this was not a good day to try to get a lot done.  I was sitting up in my bed, leaning against the headboard, fooling around on my kindle, when I got the bright idea to clean out my nightstand.  Figured I’d surely be able to find three things in there to dispose of.  To my surprise, there really wasn’t much in there to actually get rid of…a couple of Sudoku books, a pencil, a pen, a flashlight, a tube of Chapstick, a bottle of lavender essential oil (cool…I’m getting into using essential oils), and some little advertisement booklets from Philosophy and Bare Minerals.  Love the products from both companies, but I’m not sure why I thought I needed to save the little booklets.  So…out go 5 cute little booklets that I don’t need in my life anymore.

Unneeded bedside reading material

So far I’ve freed my home of 23 items in the first three days of January.  I kind of feel like I’ve been just getting rid of the little things.  And goodness knows, there are plenty of not so little things I want out of my home too.  I keep thinking I should sell them.  You know, get a little something back on the money I’ve wasted on things I didn’t really need and apparently didn’t even want.  Am I using the thought of selling things as a way to hold on to them…you know, until?  Until I figure out where the best place to sell things would be?  Until I take pictures?  Until I take the time to sit down and post the things I want to sell?  Because you know, you’ve got to gather the stuff up, clean it up, take pictures, sit down and post the pictures and descriptions, then deal with all of the people who respond (hopefully).  I guess I’ve got to get myself ready to take that step if I plan to make even a tiny bit of money from this challenge.  But hey, I’ve got a four-day weekend  starting on the 11th.  That’s it!  I’ll do it then.  To prepare for it, I’ll begin gathering (and maybe cleaning, depending on how I feel when I come home from work) things I want to sell.  I could even do some of the photography.  Okay…that’s the plan.  That’s when the big stuff is gone…out of here…history…

Now that I’ve made that decision, I feel like I’m really doing this, not just piddling around (ha, my mom used to use that phrase a lot…not something I say very often in face-to-face conversations.  But I like it.  I may just add it to my everyday speech.).  Lesson for today:  Think about what you want and then make the decision to do whatever it takes to get it.