FIVE things

So, I'm reading this book, Clutter Busting. One of the exercises is to pretend you can only keep 5 things. What would those 5 things be? Hmm, only 5, huh? That's a toughie.

1) My camera (okay, not so tough on that one) - I'm counting this as one though if I had to I'd condense it down to the camera body, a couple lenses and a tripod. All would fit in my awesome camera backpack so that should count as one, right? heh

2) My computer. Obviously need that to process photos - wish it was a laptop though.

3) My Jeep. (Crappy pic but it's all I got right now.) =)

4) My phone. I've easily lived without a cell phone before, but my job makes this a necessity. This also takes the place of an mp3 player and also works as my internet connection.

5) My bike. (Again, crappy pic... but you get the idea.) I bought this not long after moving to Alaska and it's moved with me to WA then IN and will be making the trip back west soon. It's been neglected of late and needs a serious tune-up, but I love it... and it fits me. =)

Interesting what didn't make the cut. #1 was the easiest to come up with. #5 was the hardest. It was a toss-up between the bike and my knitting/crochet stuff... but I'm betting I could stash my needles/hooks in the camera bag and find more yarn down the road... is that cheating? =)

I asked my mother this same question. What were her 5 things? She got as far as her sewing machine and supplies (counting as 1), her knitting supplies (again as 1 though she wanted to lump this in with her sewing stuff), her TV/VCR (again as 1), her books (again, counting as 1). She didn't say a 5th though I'm pretty sure she'd already filled a BIG moving truck with the first 4!

So, what would YOUR 5 things be? 

Focus

Something to ponder:

32 ways to refocus

What's important in your life? Are you making it a priority?

Spring!

First weekend of Spring has brought more spring cleaning, sorting, shredding (papers, junk mail) and packing up stuff I don't need/want so I can make another trip to Goodwill. They're going to get used to seeing me there. heh It's amazing. I basically live in one room when I'm actually home, yet I still managed to accumulate way too much stuff! Or at least, way more than I need. How do I have FIVE water bottles?! Okay, a couple of those were given to me so it's not entirely my fault. Keeping the two I like and tossing the others in the box along with an electronic dictionary/thesaurus and 5-language translator (my phone does all that) and even my discman that hasn't been used in close to two years since I switched to mp3s...Since I can view them all online now, I also ditched all my medical coding magazines. Geez, those things are heavy! The only magazines I have now are knitting ones. *sigh* I really need to go through those and scan the patterns I want so those can go too. Way more time-intensive though so that'll wait until I get through most of the rest of this stuff. Tonight, I tackled shoes. Over the past two years, I've discovered I'm fine wearing the same few pairs of shoes over and over and really don't need that many. This is partly due to all the travel and the limited space in my suitcase (I pretty much just pack and black and a brown pair of flats these days), but even at home, I really only wear a few pairs so... time to cull! 11 prs out the door...

I'm also organizing/shrinking what I am keeping to save on space. I have most of my winter clothes now in a large space bag so I can suck the air out to save space. I also finally found a large dvd storage book so I can ditch all those plastic cases that take up so much shelf space! This book takes up about the same space as 20 or so plastic dvd cases in total space and is only about 6" wide... but it'll hold 92 movies! Plus another 16 I think without the info sheets. Not that it's anywhere near full, but I'm still coming out ahead on space even with what I do have so it's all good. =)

I thought about using space bags for the yarn as well, but I remember reading somewhere that it wasn't good the yarn to be squished up like that. Anyone know any different? 

Cut through the clutter...

I saw a challenge posted on another blog that involves paring down your "stuff" to what you really need by finding 10 items per week you no longer need/want and passing them on in one way or another. I just stumbled across this and the writer has gone through twelve cycles now, I believe. I'm working on a shorter time frame (hopefully), so my goals will be a bit different. Instead of a number of items and doing it on a weekly basis, I'm going to spend at least 15 min a day (probably more) going through things and deciding what I can do without and more than likely coming up with 10 items a day. If today was any predictor of things to come, this should go well. Just today, I filled two large bags with clothes and a grocery sack full of books headed for the library's book sale. All are already in my Jeep (minus the half dozen books my mother swiped before I got them out of the house) so there are no excuses not to drop them off tomorrow. =) I didn't bring that much stuff with me from Washington - most of what I didn't sell before moving is in a storage unit in eastern WA still - and I've done fairly well in getting rid of things when I've bought more, esp while on the road... but I still have way too much crap here that I don't need. There are things here that I brought from WA that I haven't touched since unpacking my car nearly two years ago now. Ridiculous! I find it comical that there were so many things I haven't touched that I thought I couldn't do without and had to find room in the car to pack (or paid to mail to IN). I'm just itching to get my hands on that stuff in WA now. I know I could have gotten rid of so much more than I did. All in due time, I suppose.