40 Bags/40 Days

I am deep into the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, so do not be upset if I ignore you for a little while, say-for 40 days. There are so many versions of this floating all over the web. The great thing is you can use the idea and make it work for you. The basic idea. Clear out 40 bags of junk- 1 bag for each day of Lent. I started by writing down all of the areas I needed to go through. When I get to the spot I make sure I go through everything and make very quick decisions. I tally the bags I take from the room. Garbage items, garage sale items, and goodwill. When I am completely done in the area, which means cleaning walls, baseboards doors, EVERYTHING! I put an x though it. I dare you to do this and by Easter morning you will be living a life with less stuff and have more time for what really matters!!!!!
I will tell you, this all started for me when I had a nightmare. Our boys were married and at our house with their new wives. As they were getting ready to leave, I asked the wives to go to the basement and get the 25 neatly labeled storage bins of their now husbands STUFF. I woke up in a sweat after both of their wives said, "We do not have room for THAT." Point- I was saving way too much. The first thing I purged was the STUFF from school. Ben and Gabe NOW each have one crate with a folder for every year of school. Now when they leave home, they can take their 1 crate not 25 boxes. I had no problem throwing away several bags of STUFF- I actually had great joy while throwing away anything that contained glitter. My boys were not involved in this process, because to them everything is special. I know logically what will matter to them in 20 years-