Three In, Three Out

It's after 10pm on Friday night as I write this and I just did the dishes! That includes starting the dishwasher, putting away some items I hand washed earlier, and washing a few more items by hand. I'm really liking my new routine of getting the dishes going EVERY night!

Do you follow that one in, one out rule? It's the idea that if you bring a new item into your home, you should then get rid of another item. I can't say I'm a die hard on this rule, unless the new item is a clear replacement of something else. I do think it is a very good guideline if you are one to buy a new wardrobe each season for example. That might mean you don't need most of the items you wore last season. This is so helpful with kids, since they generally grow from year to year when they are young.

In the last 2 days we have obtained three new pieces of furniture. We bought a used entertainment center for our basement, and two nightstands on clearance from Target for our guest bedroom. The entertainment center was purchased to replace our current really way too small television stand. We only had one nightstand prior to our purchase of two, but that old one has to go. We also will be getting rid of a coffee table that matches the old nightstand and television stand.

My goal is to sell these extra pieces of furniture. They are listed on Craigslist, so I'd like to get them sold soon! If it doesn't happen within a week or two, the items are going to Goodwill. They were inexpensive and I just don't have a reason to keep them.

I've also recently purchased some curtains. I had an old set I thought would work, but after measuring they will not work. I expect to try to sell those as well. And if they don't sell within a short period of time, I will get them to Goodwill also.

I do like this one in, one out rule. I even applied it today to a bottle of ketchup. I noticed we had two in our fridge. Both were open, but one was clearly nearly gone. I dumped the last tablespoon out, and recycled the bottle. I should have done this as soon as we opened the other one. This may seem obvious, but sometimes we just are too quick to open then new one and don't take the time to see if there is a duplicate that needs to be tossed.

Do you follow the one in, one out rule? Do you apply it for everything, or just for certain categories?

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