i'm actually reading a book...

i've never been much of a reader...i was a sponge for knowledge during my pregnancies and read more than ever during them.

right now, i'm reading a book that some of my "green" Christian friends decided to hand over to me even though they had yet to read it. i said i would do a book report. The book is called Serve God, Save The Planet.

at this stage of the game, i hope this book will change my life as much as it is making me feel like changing my life right now.

step one for me: minimize. give away everything i do not need. try to give away things i want but don't need.

this is a hard one for me to do. i am a hoarder. i like having good things. i like keeping things that may be useful at some point.

i am a pack rat.

side note: my mom moved here from Ontario last june. she brought out boxes of my "stuff" that i had been living without for nine years. most importantly, she brought out my napkin collection. yes, napkin collection. it had fancy napkins, airline napkins (back when they were almost cloth like), Christmas themes, holiday themes, ones from my pen pal in Greece, obviously napkins that were very important to me as a kid. so, i looked through them all, then threw them out. we laughed at how ridiculous it was to move a box of old, unused napkins over 4000 miles (driving).

we have two kids now, a Doberman, and two cats. we have too much stuff for the 1000 square feet that we live in. we have no garage or outdoor storage, so that means items like rakes, lawnmower, table saw, etc. get to experience the variety of weather systems that we have on the west coast. this also means that in a location where you would traditionally find shoes, there sits a chainsaw or two, pet food, a random assortment of tools and large baby items that are not being used.

so i ask myself, is lack of storage the issue, or just too much random junk?

at the minimum, i think i could try to get rid of a good amount of items. i know on the show clean sweep they have "keep", "sell", "throw out" piles and they usually split the "keep" pile in half again, i think. that might be a good start.

wish me strength to do a task that is so against my pack rat nature.

UPDATE:



ok, not to pick on derek, but he is also a pack rat...see the above picture. this vest was last worn on Monday, April 24, 2000. our wedding date. it still has the gerbera daisy pinned to it. we have moved three times since our wedding seven and a half years ago...

i'm not giving this away...not yet!