2018 Decluttering: End of February Tally

February was phenomenal month for decluttering! I may not have been great about sharing all my progress for the month throughout, but it did happen. I ended January with 263 items decluttered. By mid February, I had progressed to 270 items decluttered. Yes, just 7 items in 14 days. There will be times where the decluttering comes to a near standstill. This is okay. And if I ended February with that number I would be okay knowing that progress is the goal on this decluttering journey.

At that point, I did challenge myself to do some deeper looking. As a numbers person, I decided to reach for 300 items and check off more boxes on my decluttering sheet. And I did it! I found another 38 items for a total of 308 items.

Next, I moved on to my old tax files and found 88 pieces of paper.

I know many might not count each piece of paper as one item, but I am. Remember, there are no rules how we count things. I figure the effort to contemplate, even read, each piece of paper is significant enough to warrant counting each as one. Now, I don't count each month's current receipts as one each, since it takes mere moments to decide that grocery and gas receipts are not worth saving and should be tossed. But again, those are my rules for myself.

If you are keeping track that brought my grand total for the year to 396. I found a few things such as three baking pans, and a picture frame to add to my decluttering count this month as well. Now at 400!!

And let's talk about paper some more. I found so much more that I could let go of. The bulk of the paper I continued to discard in February was primarily investment statements (dating back to 1993). Some of these could be shredded immediately, others I did end up scanning for future reference, and that did take time. But the progress is very visible in my filing cabinet, which I'll have to share later.

But you are here for my final February tally, right?! Drum roll please.....

803

That number is nearly 40% of my goal. Again, my goal is to release 2018 items from our home this year. I am definitely pleased with the number. However, I'm even more excited with the significant progress on our paper. 

And yes, I did get my task of dropping the items I found at Goodwill yesterday. (The eyeglasses were dropped in the Lion's Club collection bin in the Walmart Optical Center). The stuff is really gone! 

Now, I wonder what progress I will make in March?