One of my favorite TV shows right now is Clean House.  It's what I think of as a positive reality show, one that helps people improve instead of pitting them against each other.  Reducing clutter/organizing is the 4th personal plan for the year which I forgot to add on my last post.  Thankfully my house hasn't reached the state of many that make it onto the Clean House show, but that's mainly thanks to a large basement.  And with my brother still taking up residence at my friend's house, there's an excess of furniture and "stuff" that's gotten overwhelming down there.

To help relieve the situation, I'm starting to get ready for a yard sale this spring.  My sister and another family I know are all needing to purge a lot of stuff, so I think this year, I'm going to try to organize/stagger three seperate yardsales.  While I don't think it will be worth the effort to move all the large pieces of furniture, my plan is to box up the smaller items to make them mobile.  We'll probably start the first weekend at my sister's house, since she has the most stuff.  What's left we'll box up and move to my house for a second sale the following weekend, and then move leftover items to my friends house the last weekend as they have the smallest yard.  What's left goes to charity or (depending on condition) the dumpster.  Niecy would be proud of the big girl pill I took last week, finally letting a large unfinish art project go that I've held onto since college.

My sister is also trying to sell some of her manga and DVDs on craigslist.  I put a table on there for my friend but haven't had any bites yet.

The second part of the process is not bringing home any new stuff.  I bought a few items I needed for my business (crib sheets mostly) on clearance at Target, but other than that my personal spending has been close to nil.  I'm avoiding stores unless I'm looking for something specific.  Instead I'm spending my downtime trying to tackle little and big projects where I already have the needed materials.

Anyway, whether or not you're planning a yardsale, it's a good idea to go through all the stuff you have in storage and purge/organize every six months or so.  You don't want to go out and buy stuff you already have simply because you can't find it.  And space is really precious now.  Particularly when you're struggling, you want everything you bring into your home to have a place and serve a function.  One of the hardest spending habits for some people, but also the most important one, is being able to recognize when it's time to stop and say I have enough.