Inspired... ?

This winter, my plan is to go through my entire house and PURGE.  I want to toss, recycle, donate, and set aside for garage sale as much of my possessions as I possibly can.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I'm attempting to simplify my life.  The less stuff I have the less I have to clean , to put away, to store, etc.
2. I am trying to be more frugal.  I heard somewhere that the less stuff you have (even just sitting around) the less you waste--money and time.  Which makes sense--the more you have the more you have the more time and money you spend taking care of it.
3. I want to avoid becoming a dedicated packrat.  This is one of the most difficult. I come from a line of packrats--my grampa, my dad--who tend to save any and everything.  I tend to be a saver and I want to be saving only the most important things.

I'm sure I will think other reasons but those are the major ones.  As I go through rooms I will be doing some deep cleaning. Cleaning is not one of my favorite chores.  Needless to say, the house hasn't had a really good cleaning since I moved in.  I have dusted, vacuumed, etc. but I want to wash walls and clean all the nooks and cranies that don't normally get cleaned.

I have been plotting and planning the last month or so. This is to say I have been procrastinating as much as I possibly could.  I was inspired to start by a friend's post about all the things she did this week... and I have to admit I felt a little guilty that I had been lazing around and not getting down to business.

Anyway. Operation Depurate is underway.

To commemorate the first day I took some clean photos...I'm not to the point where I can force myself to post any BEFORE photos yet.  But I started with my shower.  I wanted to start with something a little easy so as to not overwhelm myself.  I tossed a lot of extras that were just sitting around because I just hadn't gotten rid of them. Then I scrubbed everything clean.  I am trying to use all natural cleaners. As I post this my shower curtain is on the spin cycle in the washing machine and as soon as I put it back up I will have completed step one of Operation Depurate.

They aren't the best photos but they capture the moment & the cleanliness.