Operation: Top 50%

Prior to Chicago, the last time I'd gone on vacation was two years ago (the infamous camping trip). So, that was the last time I was away from Casa Flanigan for a week's time. When I returned from Chicago, I walked into my house and was, immediately, suffocating. The first word that popped into my mind was "prison" (though now that seems a tad extreme). I went to bed.

On Monday night I wondered if I should get rid of some stuff. But here's the thing--I do that pretty often. It doesn't do any good. I knew I needed to do something drastic. I thought (and posted on Facebook accordingly) "how it would be if she got rid of 50% of what she owns..."

I immediately began to google. Surely other people have done this and blogged about it..I do very little in this life without either a handbook or some personal guidance. But, my search was fruitless. The closest I came was a nifty little book on Amazon about getting rid of 50 things. Guess I'm on my own.

So, last night I started. I originally planned to start with my clothes, but instead I started with Gatsby's toys. Much to his chagrin. Including his grooming supplies, medications (he's dainty), and toys, Gatsby "owns" 64 things. My job was to cut that down to 32 things.Here's what we started with. Notice Gatsby's paws in the upper right corner...he stayed quite close throughout this process.


Next, part way through the cleanse...Gatsby was getting a little irritated at this point.


Finally, the finished "keep" pile...


And the finished "cleanse" pile.


First cleansing: success! Mostly...I had to do 35 things instead of 32 because I just couldn't decide. I'll forgive myself that, though, since it was the first time.