Bit by bit

9/21/09 One bag of basement junk, recycled; one bag of basement junk, trashed

Check out the picture above. That's what I'm up against. It's a view of about 1/3 of my basement, which has WAY too much stuff in it. The problem is that there is almost nothing there that I look at and say, "Oh, I should get rid of this." It's all useful, at least from a certain point of view.

One of the great life-lessons I learned from my Grandfather - hereafter properly referred to as Papa - was that if you do a little bit at a time, any job will eventually get done. In a way, that captures the spirit of the Downsizing Challenge. Rather than doing the usual binging and purging of spring cleaning and fall yard sales, I'm trying to keep a steady pace. Every day, something goes. Doesn't have to be anything big, just has to be something that otherwise would have continued to sit here.

Today, it certainly wasn't anything big. I devoted forty-five minutes to the basement, not trying to make decisions on difficult items, but starting to clear a path to them. I managed to fill a garbage bag with trash and a shopping bag with items to be recycled. I would bet that every single thing I put in one of those bags had been in my basement for at least a year; most things probably more like three or four years. I'm telling you, the basement is like a giant clutter magnet.

Now there is slightly less clutter down there. It's a small start, but perhaps I can build on the momentum and continue to chip away it.

I'm making progress, a little bit at a time. Right, Papa?