If it's Thursday it must be off to the New To You store

I have spent the last few days going through closets and cupboards. My Goodness we have way, way too much stuff! I do this several times a year. I open up a make up drawer/ linen cupboard/ (whatever) and see too much of pretty much of everything and I freak out. A cleaning/ culling streak comes next.

I brought 7 bags of clothes/shoes to New to You Store here in Virden today. I have several coats put aside for the girls' school and I have a good pile of kids shoes, boots and Easter dresses for a friend. We were really fortunate to of had neighbours who shared their hand-me-downs with us and I try to do the same when I can. Giving the stuff away to either someone I know will use it or to a Thrift shop makes me feel a little less guilty about having accumulated it in the first place. By actually going through the stuff it makes me feel a lot less likely to find the host of TLC's Hoarders without Borders- Virden Edition waiting to ambush me in the driveway.

I always feel better after a large culling of the house but it makes me very aware of my roll in how the house got like this in the first place. Scott may be a collector but I am a magpie and, honestly, I think I am likely worse than him. His collection is limited to one room- so far. I've managed to fill the rest of the house.

I'm not a big believer in New Years Resolutions usually because I find myself trying to honour ridiculous ideas like "I'm going to only eat green and yellow foods while exercising a minimum of 40 minutes a day, 6 days a week." And in the same manner as the above mentioned freak out by January 6th I am concocting elaborate ideas of how to turn a KitKat green.

But this year I am going to try something different. (An attempt at being reasonable for a change?!) Having just been quite disgusted with the volume of stuff I just gave away I am going to try to watch my shopping (for all things- not just clothes) and I resolve to think twice about something before buying it. I think this is a reasonable resolution and one that I can do- with effort. It's worth a try.

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And on a very weird side note- Scott and I stayed up until midnight last night watching "Hot Tub Time Machine". Usually I would rate that as a sure sign of the Apocalypse but it was actually very funny; especially if you are a child of the 80's. Maybe I just liked John Cusak. Or maybe I was just very tired.