New Year's Resolution

I'm a hoarder. Not an extreme one as my mother was; she managed to fill a large house with fourteen foot ceilings and a two car garage to the brim with things she couldn't bear to let go of. I have a lot of things that others could use to far better purpose by others and this is the year I'm going to let them have the things I can't or won't use...

The first thing I plan to do is cull out things I haven't used for the past five years. That should reduce the clutter by at least ten percent. I've already made a start by cleaning out my shoe racks. That did amazing things for my side of the closet. Since I'm not really into shoes that was only a car trunk full.

Next, I plan to get rid of the stuff that was one time absolutely necessary, but certainly isn't now and won't be again. This is a lot of saddles, bridles, halters, lead ropes and grooming supplies. I closed my stable several years ago. While I still have four horses and two ponies I no longer need multiple saddles for each horse in order to accommodate different sized riders. Same goes for all the bridles, halters and grooming equipment. If only one or two people are doing things with the horses then a lot of equipment can be easily shared.

What I mostly do with my horses any more is drive them so I'll be keeping all my harness and carts. I'll keep enough saddles and things of that nature for the kids and grandkids when they want to ride. That takes care of one truck load of stuff.

I won't be getting rid of any of my art supplies or crochet stuff. Those things are not used for long periods of time, but then they don't cost anything to keep until I do get the urge to use them again. Ditto for a lot of my books since reading is my favorite form of recreation. This still leaves several semi truck loads of stuff that can be relocated to other peoples' houses.

And do two people really need a dozen different cooking pots, pans etc? Four different sets of dinnerware? Flatware? I think that there can be some culling there too.

We keep our computers when they die. There is a great computer resting place in our garage along with all the peripheral monitors, printers etc.

For that matter I could probably open a used books store and not have to consider buying replacement stock for six weeks or more.

There is enough animal care equipment on the back porch, which extends the length of the house, to open my own pet supply store.

The animals? Six horses, five cats and two dogs. Well, I guess attrition by age will just have to take care of that problem.

Okay, so this is going to be a little harder than it first appears, but I'm still going to at least try to get control of my habit of collecting things and keeping them beyond all reason.

I'll provide occasional updates on my progress in decluttering my life. It should provide some amusement for those of you who don't collect stuff until it is running out your ears.