Way back when March started I talked about beginning spring cleaning a little bit earlier this year. In fact, I began what was essentially a “clean out” of stuff that has either been accumulating or just taking up space in my closet and bedroom for too long. In that earlier entry, I talked about getting rid of t-shirts that either no longer fit, were never worn in the first place, or were sorely out of style. I’m glad to say that as of last Friday, I donated a huge pile of clothes to the Monmouth County SPCA (which is where I adopted one of my Mom’s dogs). The MCSPCA will now put the clothing out for purchase in their thrift store with the proceeds going to fund necessary items and procedures for the animals.
One of the reasons why it took me so long to get over to the MCSPCA was because I wanted to bring over some other stuff, too. So when I went over last Friday I also brought with me a bunch of these children’s books that I used to read when I was a little kid. They’re these small little books that take classic stories and abridge them for children – pretty neat idea. Anyway, I must have donated about 30 of those books. And while I was at it, I also donated four picture/document frames that I wasn’t using.
However, in the process of digging into my two storage bins to find those books, I came across stacks and stacks and stacks of old paperwork that I filed away. So, since I have a “clean out” mindset going this month and next, I decided to go through each stack of paper to see what I really needed and what I didn’t need at all. As you might imagine, 95% of the crap that I had been hanging onto I didn’t need for anything at all. When I made my gigantic stack of stuff that was no longer necessary, I took it to work and dumped it into our security bin to be shredded and recycled.
Some of the stuff that was sent off for shredding and recycling included old bank statements (dating back to the early 2000’s for bank accounts that are no longer open at banks that no longer exist), copies of old leases, old magazines, old paperwork from when I was volunteering for my fraternity, copies of medical bills from the early 2000’s, old cable and credit card bills, and random slices of paper that I seemed to stick in here and there for whatever reason. It was a bunch of garbage and I’m glad to be rid of it. Now my one storage bin fits inside of the other storage bin because I’ve gone from two fill bins to one bin that is about half full. That’s pretty good progress.
Tonight, the clean out continues as I give away my old television that has been sitting in my kitchen and/or living room, unused, for over a year.
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