The Saturday Seven - #25

Late. Again.

I thought in the new year I would try to do better with keeping up with this blog. But in the first week, I already got behind. Ah, well.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of more stuff this year, and maybe even getting the chaos of my house simplified, at least a little bit. The first thing I got rid of for this Saturday Seven had a huge impact on my psyche.

this rocking chair
(not pictured in its usual location)

This thing has been sitting unused in our master bedroom for, I don't know, two or three years now. I had a vision of cottage chic loveliness when I first painted it white and brought it in from the garage. But it turns out I'm not really a wooden rocking chair person, unless I'm on a porch. I bought this for the front porch of my house in Georgia, about eight years ago. Used it on that porch till I moved up here a couple of years later, then stored it for a couple of years, then painted it and moved it into our bedroom.

You know, it is really psychologically burdensome to have something big in your space that you just don't use. It is so in the way. It wasn't even in an appropriate place in our bedroom, because - get this - there are two other chairs also in that space, also unused (except by the cat). I unloaded this on freecycle - out of my house within two hours of my posting it. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Freecycle ROCKS! And I can't tell you what a relief it is not to have this thing to trip over when I get up in the morning.

I also got rid of:
- a brand-new soap dispenser that builds into a kitchen sink - we had to replace our faucet last week, and it came with this dispenser, but we don't have a hole in our sink for such - freecycled this one too
- a beanie baby monkey - donated to the church rummage sale, which is also where I got it a couple of years ago
- a small picture frame - rummage sale
- three hardcover books - a John Sandford, a Patricia Cornwell,and a health and nutrition one - also to the rummage sale. I used to have high hopes of selling these because they were hardcover and in excellent condition. But a trip to a local used bookstore quickly disabused me of that notion.

Many months ago, I mentioned that I had found some stuff at my parents' house to give to Goodwill. I never got it there, so I never updated my sidebar total with those seven things. Well, my dad told me over the holidays that he finally dropped them off for me. So here are my totals:
this past week: 7 things gone
total so far: 214

I am at the halfway point of the project now (as of January 7). It is about as hard for me as I expected it would be, but I'm really glad for the challenge and the motivation. It helps a lot to have these weekly sort of "confessionals" about my struggle with stuff. Thank you, dear reader, for being a part of the journey with me!