RELEASE (A Five-Minute Friday Post)

"Please release me, let me go..."

That's what I said to my so-called career in December.  I retired.  I was released from my position.  I was released from the obligation to show up and give my time to a big organization.  I was released from the bondage of a paycheck. I was released to my new life, and I've been loving it!

I thought it would be like permanent summer vacation, but there is so much to do and to accomplish, I feel like I'm busier now than when I was working.  It's not quite what I expected, but it's not a bad thing!

I still have obligations, but they are obligations I've chosen - like helping take care of the chickens at my church's organic farm, singing in the choir, and playing handbells.  I've taken classes - some are artsy-fartsy, some are technology driven, some are about genealogy, and some are just for the heck of it!  I'm learning all sorts of things.

And I'm working on the house.  There are so many things I've put off doing for YEARS, and by golly, I'm attacking them!  Decluttering!  Repairs!  Improvements!  I'm releasing the unnecessary STUFF that has filled the house and gotten in the way.  I'm releasing the broken STUFF and getting things fixed.  I'm releasing the old STUFF that was good enough for a while, and upgrading things a bit. 

All in all, I'm releasing what hasn't worked so far, and figuring out what does!

Release is a relief!

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This post is part of the Five-Minute Friday link-up.  Today's writing prompt was "RELEASE."  For more information on Five-Minute Friday, click here.

First World Problems - Too Much!

There's too much STUFF in my house.

Too much yarn.
I have an entire closet and a large cedar chest STUFFED with yarn.

I have a thing for sock yarn.  And cotton yarn.  And variegated yarn.  And eyelash yarn.  And wool yarn.  Oh, me (as Dad would have said).  More than I'll ever use, I'm afraid, but I'm going to give it the old college try!  I'm working on a pair of socks right now.  I figure if I alternate knitting a pair of socks with doing some other yarn project, I might make a dent in the stash. 

Eventually. 

Maybe by the turn of the next century.

Too many pots and pans.
I have all of Mom's, all of my great-aunt's, plus all of MY Revereware.  I almost added some more from one of my friends when she was cleaning out her mom's house, but I restrained myself with great effort.  I did give some to That Girl, and some more is packed away for That Boy, but I still have more than I can comfortably store.






Too many cats.

Four.  I've already documented THAT hot mess here, here, here, and here... 

Heavy sigh.






Too many clothes.
You'll notice there aren't any pictures associated with this part of the post. 

Too. Much. Shame.

This is the WORST.  My clothes won't all fit in the walk-in closet and dresser.  I don't wear most of them.  I can't even SEE a lot of them, so they get forgotten.  Time to release them back into the wild.

I looked online for decluttering ideas. There are zillions of sites dedicated to getting rid of excess STUFF. Obviously, I'm not alone. I think Nike's "Just do it" tagline is probably the best advice, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with decluttering.

Following the instructions from one site, I did a quick and dirty closet and drawer inventory (a project I’ve been putting off for some time now). I discovered, to my great dismay, in my wardrobe inventory (excluding underwear, shoes, outerwear, and accessories, I have a whopping 367 items in my drawers and closet.  OUCH.

Here are the counts: Athletic/Athleisure 172, Casual 102, Better/Business Casual/Church 86, Professional 0, Date Night/Girls Night Out/Dressy/Formal 8. Wow.  That’s a boatload of jeans, t-shirts, and running clothes. I knew I had a lot of clothes, but who knew??? And I forgot to go count the storage box of too-small/special/holiday clothes.  Surely those don't count. At least I'm not counting them this time around.

Then, upon further reflection, I found I’d forgotten about the clothes from the recent trip to Florida!  So I counted those. Oh, my. Now I have 398 pieces of clothing. Actually, there are two more items in a gym bag I keep in the car for emergencies, so I guess I’ll just make it an even 400.  Just too many clothes, and almost all in the Athleisure and Casual classifications. How sad is THAT?

Well, at least it fits my so-called lifestyle.

I'm chipping away at the overflowing closet.  I've donated four big bags of perfectly good clothing, but the closet doesn't look any emptier.  Everything was jammed in there, and now it's not as tight.  At least it's an improvement.  I've only attacked one wall of the walk-in closet so far.  Maybe I'll make some real headway during the next stage of the purge.

What do you need to declutter? What is your shameful story of Too Much?