Friday 11 September 2015

Donating Stuff

The decluttering has continued and this week we had a Canadian Diabetes pick up. 19 boxes full of stuff! I’m so happy to get all those boxes out of my garage and all the stuff out of my house. I’m sure G is happy to have his workspace back aswell lol. I love the fact that everything left has a ‘home’, it makes cleaning and tidying up so much easier and not overwhelming. Although this was a big donation I’m going to continue this trend of questioning if things really are being used or not. I have a box upstairs marked for donation and I already have 4 items in there (all candle holder I’ve never used, why I had so many - I really couldn't tell you). Anytime it gets full I’ll call CD and see if they will be in the area and schedule a pick up. J

The day before the pick up I got rid of 50+ more items and added another box of stuff to my donate pile. It was a lot of items I was on the fence about and when it came time to do my final sweep I just didn’t care anymore. I can honestly say everything in my closet is something I wear – which is a huge accomplishment for me. I got rid of 2/3 of my wardrobe and it really opened my eyes to all the money I have wasted over the years on clothes... many items still with tags on.

One of my ‘rules’ going forward is I am not going to purchase any clothes online. It’s so difficult to get things to fit, even when I take my measurements and compare them with those listed online for the garment. The last time I ordered online it was a dress from ModCloth that was on the more expensive side and even though I triple checked my measurements the dress was still huge on me! And the kicker was I needed to pay about $25 in duty when it arrived on top of paying to get it tailored. That was back in June so I’ve been good all summer not purchasing or even looking online at clothes. I’ve unsubscribed to a lot of emails because I didn’t even find myself looking at them but deleting a ton of unread ones all at once.

Okay, so no online shopping: big deal can’t I just go to the mall? If you are new to my blog you may not know but I live in an extremely rural community Saskatchewan. Okay maybe not extremely – but for this big city girl from Ontario it was a big adjustment (there’s not a single stop light in town & we are finally getting a proper garbage and recycling program later this year, haha). Anyways, the nearest mall is a 6 hour round trip from my house and most times when we go into the city we don’t always have time to stop and browse. But guess what? This is exactly what I needed, no temptation!

I’m not nervous about going to Vegas next month either. We are there long enough that I know I can take my time shopping and be mindful of everything I buy/make sure I actually like the items and they fit well. I have a few pieces on my list such as new jeans, basic tanks from H&M (seriously the best and cheap), pencil skirts for work (grey and black), another pair of work pants (to wear during winter), new bras and a trench coat. I have been savings up all summer plus my birthday money, which I will exchange so it’s actual CASH I’m handing over instead of swiping a credit card. I’m interested to see if I’m a little tighter with my money that way. :P

- M

            PS: Another nice perk of living out in the middle of nowhere: being able to see the Northern Lights from my bedroom window. Here are so shots taking from my husbands cell phone from our backyard the other night.



Photos don't do them justice <3

4 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful pictures. The lights truly are amazing to watch. You did a great job of getting rid of things you no longer have purpose for. I bet it felt good to have it all out of the house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They really are! My husband was working a night shift so he woke me and my parents up at about 4am to come outside and watch: no one was angry about getting woken up because how magical it is. Although I've seen them plenty of times since moving out here, I will never get tired of seeing them dance across the skies.

      & thank you! More and more stuff keeps getting organized and decluttered. I got rid of two more garbage bags last night and today. It really does feel awesome :)

      Delete
  2. I do so much of my shopping online because there isn't really any place to shop in my town. Shirts are pretty east for me to buy online but I will return it if it doesn't fit right. For pants, I only order them online if I know the store and know what fit I like. I pretty much order everything for my kids online.

    Have fun in Vegas! I love Vegas for about two days and then I'm tired if it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I was able to do that but I would need to either travel to a different province to return items in store (not a lot of selection here in Saskatchewan) or pay to return them online. I just figure, G and I will be doing one big trip at least once a year - things can definitely wait until we go and I can get all my shopping done then.

      Thank you! I'm really looking forward to it since it's something completely out of our comfort zone. We might be in for a culture shock though, lol

      Delete