A week ago today, I committed to sorting through all of the stuff, other than photos and memorabilia, stored in my home office. I selected a target date of Saturday afternoon so I could cancel my massage appointment (aka, the “carrot” I was holding out to motivate myself to get this task done) if I hadn’t completed the task.

I not only completed the task, I completed it well ahead of my self-imposed deadline! Wednesday afternoon I marched into the office, determined not to leave again until I’d gone through all of the craft and office supplies and other odds & ends that had accumulated there since I moved in in early March.

I placed 2 cardboard boxes — one for donations to a local charitable organization’s thrift shop and the other for things that would go in the trash — just outside the door and got to work.

The job didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would, but that’s due, in large part, to the fact that I put in one of the two boxes everything except photos and memorabilia, 4 ink pens, and a Pottery Barn wicker file box that, after a quick go-through, now contains only 10 files of crucial financial and personal papers.

I donated every single craft item that could either be sold in the thrift shop or used by the women or children who sought shelter in my community’s Safe House for Women. The rest? I tossed it in the trash without a single qualm. No more “I know I’ll use that some day when I get around to making . . .”.   No more, “But I might need that!”

Two full boxes of stuff went in the trash; two more boxes and a plastic grocery bag of stuff went to the thrift shop the next morning.

Even so, I cancelled my massage appointment. Instead, I very happily put the money I would have spent on that into my mortgage-free-house fund. Every little bit adds up, right?

And now I’m moving on in my quest to reduce what I own to what will fit in 5 trunks and a tote by committing this week to going through the few large plastic storage bins sitting in the basement. Like last week, I’m hoping you’ll hold me accountable by checking in next Monday to see if I followed through and to chastise me if I didn’t.

As for the carrot? I’ll take a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies out of the freezer, brew a cup of Earl Gray tea, and spend an afternoon on the couch watching a favorite movie!