Operation Purge!

Operation Purge! The Great Purge! The Clean Sweep! The Unencumbered Life! I'm not sure what to really call this new phase, but the name is not what is important. It's the intent that is.

I will not take credit for the idea either. The last little while I've read similar intentions over Facebook, or various blog posts, and somehow the idea stuck. So what is this idea? Pretty much what it sounds like, purging cumbersome items from your life, or clutter, or whatever else is in your life but not necessary.

At first I didn't think I would have much I could get rid of, but as I looked around my apartment, I started to notice things that I hadn't used in a long time. Even though we had purged quite a lot before moving, there are still quite a few things that don't play a part in our everyday lives that we still took the effort to pack up and move with us.

So I decided to jump on the bandwagon, and start purging. In order for it to not be overwhelming, and for me to let go of my sentimental attachment, I plan to purge in small batches. In theory, I think getting rid of one item a day for six months to a year would be awesome. In reality, when I start doing something, I am usually gun-ho for the first little while, then my energy or attention starts to wane. I am certainly going to try to keep the purging effort up for the whole year, but to help offset that, should my attention drift, I will allow myself to purge as much as I am willing to in a day. So if I find three or four things to get rid of, then I will. If I can only bring myself to give up one item, I won't beat myself up about the small amount.

My first step in the purging is halting any intake. Of course that is pretty much impossible for some things - groceries, replacing clothing that is falling apart, which in my case, pretty much all of it is since I have been having budgeting struggles and haven't bought any new clothes since August, and before that, my clothing purchases were usually made a year apart. But for simple things like books or yarn, my two downfalls, it is only a matter of self-restraint.

For the last couple of years of being a student, I had managed to keep my art supply budget pretty small by asking myself if I really needed it before buying it. I made myself carefully consider how I would use it in my projects to make sure it would be used, and not just sit in the locker waiting for the right idea to come along. So now, I just need to shift that focus to my everyday life. I have been asking myself that question for the last couple of months almost every time I see something that I want to buy, and so far it has worked almost every time.

The few times I have strayed from self-restraint, I managed to at least buy something with a specific purpose in mind. For example, one of my New Year's Resolutions at the beginning of this year was to finish my Works-In-Progress before moving on to new ones. That resolution didn't really work out too well since I was having some crazy health issues that kept me from making a lot of progress, and I participate in a few Knit-A-Long groups and didn't want to fall behind. BUT, since the idea of purging, and restricting the amount of stuff I bring into the apartment started to take over my thoughts, the last few months I have been able to maintain a fairly strict yarn diet. I have only bought yarn three times since July.

Twice at the yarn conference, and only because I found a kit that I like, for a shawl pattern that I liked. I generally don't like the yarn in kits, so I allowed myself that exception. The second purchase I allowed myself at the yarn conference were two small toy kits, both of which will be Christmas presents for a few people. And the last time was shortly before the yarn conference. I bought some yarn for the Christmas presents I am sending out to my bother's family one province over.

Other than those lapses, which at least have specific purposes in mind, I have been keeping to the yarn diet. I thought about adding patterns to the diet, but even I know a lost cause when I see one. I have been fairly good at only bookmarking patterns I find online, instead of buying them. Until I have the yarn to make those patterns, I won't buy them. And until I have worked through my stash and brought it down to a reasonable size, I will try my hardest not to loose my self control. I do have some yarn in my stash for specific projects, which I will do first, and then I will start going through the yarn that I bought just because to see what patterns I have they would work for. If I don't have anything already, but one of my saved patterns is perfect for that yarn, then I will allow myself the treat of buying a new pattern.

Books are my other downfall, as stated above. Thankfully, since starting to knit, I have been taking less time to read, which makes it easier to stop buying books. I had pretty much stopped buying brand new books anyway, unless they were gifts, so I really just have to stay away from used book stores, or the library sale, or the clearance section at the book store. But that still leaves all the books I currently own.

The ones in my apartment are pretty much all knitting books, or books that I read multiple times a year, or my "other languages" books. It will be the books I have in storage at my parents house that will be the hardest to give away. I have kept them this long because I can see myself using them "when I have more free time". Books on art topics, or how-to books, or book collections I started as a young adult that I still like to read every once and a while. It will be very difficult to let those go....

Anyway, yesterday was the first day that I actively decided to implement Operation Purge! And I must say that it is going well so far. I gave up three pairs of shoes that I love, but haven't worn for over a year. And today I let go of three books. Actually, one was a book set of children's books that I bought for when my niece visits, which is usually only twice a year. She is getting old enough that she won't want to read them much longer, so while she is not here, I will give them away and hope she doesn't ask for them over the Christmas break visit. And the other two were mine. AND my BF also put a pile of books into the bag to give away. So that was about 10 books and the set of children's book that are out of the apartment.

Wish me luck in keeping this up all year long!