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| Charlotte, the fabulously fake tree |
Now, although Wikipedia describes Boxing Day as a shopping day, in our house we have always treated it as a day to box up unneeded items for giving away to charity. Which is not what I had done on December 26th, but it was what I resolved to do starting the very next day.
So, as I put away my Christmas gifts, I looked for items to box up. It seemed only natural to part with items in the same general category as the new gifts: new pajamas and gloves = box up old pajamas and excess gloves (how many pairs does one need, anyway?) Cute new earrings = what old earrings do I never really wear?
In this manner I managed to find at least one item to give away for every new thing I received. And thus was born my New Year's Resolution for 2013: for every new item that comes into my life, one old item needs to move out.
I tried to keep up with this mindset during the final week of 2012, but ran into difficulty when I went to fabric clearance sales at two local quilt shops. Bought about 8 yards of fabric--mostly to start a t-shirt quilt for Youngest Daughter. Sweetie reasoned, "since the fabric is to be used to make a quilt that you are giving away as a gift, you shouldn't have to offset it coming into the house." Yesss, but... what if it takes me 3 years to make this quilt? What if I start using this mindset to justify acquiring lots of stuff fabric? (I know me: the year I took The Compact to buy nothing new, I had to restrict myself from Goodwill shopping, as I veered away from the intent of the pledge into massive used buying.)
Well, the question of the fabric purchases remains unresolved. Technically, the purchase was in 2012, but I really feel like this Resolution started on Boxing Day. So I'll be looking for something to part with, to at least assuage my fabric-hoarding shopping guilt.
Here's to a 2013 that continues the 2012 journey: have less stuff!
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