The Laundry Basket Challenge

I've decided to make up my own challenge - so I thought maybe someone would be up for it as well?

We have way too much "stuff" in our household. The problem is that the stuff causes clutter, which makes the house feel messy and small, and in turn causes me to be grumpy.

See the flow here? Stuff = Clutter = Mess = Grumpy.

So my challenge to me (and you) is this: Grab a large laundry basket and go through each room and fill it up. In my house I've designated 12 rooms - I threw a few together like the bathroom + E's room since it is pretty widdled down, or living room + dining room since we don't have a lot of stuff in those rooms. And if one room only generates half a laundry basket of stuff - I'm going back through it with Keith and try again. If it still is only half full - that will mean that another room will need 1 1/2 baskets of junk. In the end, I will be giving away/selling 12 tubs, plus the stuff already waiting to be taken away in the attic and basement.

In my head I'm a minimalist like my friend Kate but the reality is that I tend to save stuff "just in case" and hold onto things for sentimental reasons when in fact the item is not all that worthy of being sentimental. I crave space, I love empty drawers that aren't in a hurry to be filled. I want to bless someone else with stuff and make some money on some of it. That new road bike is my goal!

We're throwing around the idea of a garage sale - I hate having them but I think one last big one might be the way to go - and then try not to have enough stuff in the future to warrant another. If anyone is interested in doing one together - let me know.

So here I go - starting next week the weeding of stuff begins. Who's with me?