STUFF...... what is it good for? a.k.a Why do we have 20 plastic water bottles? And why am I keeping 9 of them?

Wow...... I do not consider us to be big time consumers, at least relative to the average US consumer... we have not bought any new furniture since we have been married...... we have no basement and no attic to store stuff and we have had several garage sales over the past few years, but we still seem to have accumulated so much STUFF!!!!  Where does it all come from?  I swear, it reproduces!!!

Since we are hoping to start construction in August, we have started cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets and are ruthlessly (define ruthless) using this as an opportunity to simplify our lives and get rid of clutter and junk/stuff that we never use; even if it is sentimental or pretty.

I must say it is a challenge... I guess we do get emotionally tied to things; or become afraid to get rid of something that we might need in the future.   I think I inherited this attribute from my mom!  For example, I have years worth of Cooks Illustrated subscriptions... I have them all organized and they take up shelf space.  I cannot tell you the last time I looked up a recipe in these paper copies.... I now have an electronic subscription which I use to search and save those recipes that I want; yet for some weird reason I do not want to throw all those paper copies in the recycle pile.... What is up with that?!  Perhaps it is all those food stains on the pages of the recipes I have made, or the idea of disposing of something which I paid for and still value?  I do think we lose something in the translation to technology....even though the gains obviously outweigh the paper versions!

Wish us luck... we have lots more work to go.... but I am committed to doing this cleaning out.... it is a huge opportunity to simplify and part of the attraction of doing such a big project!!