(almost) clutter free

I’ve had another fun-filled week of sorting, filing, shredding, and paring down using the clutter test from Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston as my guide:

• Does it lift my energy when I think about it or look at it?
  
• Do I absolutely love it?
  
• Is it genuinely useful?

Whenever I go through this process I am astounded / horrified at the amount of stuff I have managed to accumulate and/or hold on to well past its useful life to me. In fact I had a headache most of last week which I attribute to a) inhaling paper fibers, b) increased tension from deciding what to spare and what to tear and c) relief of tension when I finally took three huge bags of trash to the curb on Monday and loaded up my car with:

• One file cabinet and six large bags of household items, clothes and travel gear that went to The Spring of Tampa Bay.
  
• One box filled with eight handbags, one winter jacket and some surprise gifts that should make it to my sister and her family on Thursday
  
• Four bags of my reject samples that I donated back to the resource room at school

I still have a bunch of loose ends (i.e. filing) to finish up but can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and that’s a good feeling.

In celebration, I stopped by the mall on the way home from school and indulged in a chai latte and a slice of yummy lemon cake at the Nordstrom ebar – a nice little reward for a job well done.

Um, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I topped off my day with a new Kipling bag (summer clearance – I couldn’t resist). I do have a lot more room in my closet after all ;)