Friday, April 4, 2008

#201 - Hoe Down

Joining Chile's "Cut The Crap" Challenge



Chile is at it again! She has created a new De-cluttering Challenge to go hand-in-hand with Crunchy Chicken's Buy Nothing Challenge. Chile challenges us to not only buy nothing new this month, but to rid ourselves of all the useless crap we've accumulated through the years.

Even if you've never read Affluenza, you know that most of us Americans are Kings and Queens of Consumption. We buy things we don't need, just because they're pretty, or shiny, or -- the big killer -- ON SALE. Now this wouldn't be too awful these purchases were consumables like local food and CSA subscriptions or if they were true daily use items like toaster ovens and drying racks. But they're not.

Testament to this fact is that most of us have closets or maybe even rooms bursting with pure, unadulterated crap. Shit we bought at the dollar store... Toys our kids got as presents that they don't play with and never did... Decorations that match neither our decor nor our taste... books that we've read once but won't read again... clothes that our fat asses will never squeeze into without removing body organs... need I continue?

No, I needn't. And you know why? Because one of those statements hit true with you. And if not, I'm sure you could think up your own statement to match your Personal Crap Collection.

Well Chile says "Enough! Hoe it Out! Pare it Down!" And I tend to agree. And so I will be Hoeing Down (or Paring Out, not sure yet) this month in an effort to de-clutter my home and my life. Keep a close eye on Chile's site as she is chock full of helpful information to get you started!

And stay tuned to Burbanmom as well. I've come up with my own little challenge to go hand-in-hand.... ummm....-in-hand with Crunchy's and Chile's Challenges. But don't worry... you know how lazy I am. Mine will be pretty easy. A challenge for the challengely-challenged, if you will. Watch for it on Monday* when I return!


*Big thanks to Melinda at Elements in Time who introduced me to her Technology-Free Challenge. I learned that the world does not dissolve if I'm not online (it only melts a little)**. As such, I am going Techno-Free on weekends and will no longer be posting on Saturdays in Sundays. This will give me lots of time to work on my garden! :-)

**That's a global warming joke. Get it?***

***I really like these asterisk-style footnotes today.

4 comments:

Chile said...

Hm, decluttering body parts to fit in the clothes in the closet? Hadn't thought of that one...

Green Bean said...

Like the fat asses comment. I was thinking of that today while walking my son home from school and wondering why all that walking doesn't seem to actually reduce the body fat . . . oh! it's the big ol' chocolate chip cookie I just ate. Hey, it was local and organic and sold at the farmers' market!

Anonymous said...

I don't have an aversion to decluttering, but I know some folks do.
Instead of focusing on what we need to "get rid of", creating a list of "only what we really need" might be a way to get folks to view their overabundance of 'stuff' in a less overwhelming way.
How many frying pans does one need? How many pairs of socks?
How many sets of sheets and pillowcases?
Moving your household to another city, going camping to a walk in location, or flying with only carryon baggage are three interesting ways to view your stuff, and if it's necessary.

Anonymous said...

Looking at my closet, I have clothes that I have not worn for 5 years. What the heck are they doing in my closet? Oh yeah, for sentimental values - I bought this shirt when I celebrated the success of my knee surgery; I bought that skirt because I lost baby fat after my first born. Now how can I possibly part with the clothes? Maybe I should just get someone else to do it for me.