Dent

Even though the official start to the challenge isn’t until tomorrow, I was feeling inspired to get to work today.  Since I’ve been avoiding this for years now, I decided to honor the urge starting with the pile of shoes at the end of the coffee table in the living room. 

I don’t have a huge collection of shoes; however, it seems that way since they are everywhere except in the shoe cubby storage unit I own.  One reason is that I can’t get to the shoe cubby because of the crap piled in front of it and another reason is I tend to kick my shoes off before I get to my bedroom where the shoe cubby is; hence, the large pile of shoes in the living room.  Once I have more work done, I plan to move the shoe cubby storage center so that’s it is right next to the door since that’s where my shoes tend to migrate.  That should make them easier to keep organized.

I did way more than 15 minutes because when I started to move the crap in front of the shoe cubbies, I decided to just tackle those piles too instead of moving them to be dealt with later.  All the experts say to only touch items once.  Apparently, the more you handle an item the more attached to it you become even if you haven’t used it in forever or don’t really like it.

The biggest emotional release of the day was getting rid of my all-time favorite pair of shoes.  I can't even remember the last time I wore them but it was probably before my ankle surgery in 2011.  If they weren't falling apart, I would have kept them.  Instead, I took pictures and released them.  I will be on the hunt for another pair as they always made me feel beautiful and like I could kick ass!!!

Once I tackled the offending piles and all of the shoes, I decided to do a quick sweep of my closet.  I went through everything that was hanging up deciding on first glance if the item should stay or go.  I’ll definitely need to go back through the items but it was a great first pass.

It was awesome to finally make some progress and make a dent in the mess that has been swallowing my life.  I got more done today with my new outlook and determination than I have in a very long time.  So exciting!!!

I decided to follow Becky Higgins’ advice and keep track of the number of items I am releasing so here are today’s numbers:

ITEMS DONATED:                             54

ITEMS TRASHED:                             14

TODAY’S RELEASE TOTAL:        68 ITEMS