On Purging

I confess: I am a pack rat. I used to be worse than I am now, but I’m still pretty bad. That’s why, this quarter, one of my goals was to start purging. I suppose you could call it a prelude to spring cleaning, though that’s not something I ever do, so…

I thought it might be fun to talk about a little bit. Maybe you can learn more about me, and maybe I can learn more about you ^^

Bookish Purging

A few weeks ago, I deleted every single item on my Goodreads to-read list. As of the writing of this, 22 books have found their way back onto that shelf. That is SO much better than the 500-some I had on it previously. It’s freeing. In future, I want to be more careful of what I put on the list.

At some point (though I don’t know if I’ll do it this quarter), I would also like to go through my shelves and purge the books that I know I won’t read or reread. I want to give them away as presents, or do a giveaway here on the blog if I can afford it, and just make more space on my shelves.

So that I can buy more books, of course.

But I also want to clear out the list of book blogs I follow, honestly. I feel like I follow a lot of blogs that don’t update regularly anymore, or that I don’t actually read, and I don’t want to falsely bloat their follower counts or clog up my reading list with things I won’t read. Sorry, but it’s better for both of us if we don’t even talk ^^;

How do you determine whether to keep a book or to pass it on? How often do you get rid of books? Never? Every week? What are your favorites ways to get rid of them? How do you determine which book blogs to follow?

“Professional” Purging

I put this in quotation marks because I’m talking less about my job and more about the supplies for work and school and writing (which will, hopefully, end up professional. I have a ton of writing supplies that I really need to go through—what pens still work? Do I really need this many pencils? What I keep I want to organize and minimize in terms of space, so that I have more space in general and am using what I have available to me more intelligently.

But this extends to more than writing supplies. I have old binders and notebooks from years of classes past. I’ve already purged some of these in the past couple of years, but I kept a lot of things that… well, I’m now realizing I need to be harsh on myself and be really comfortable admitting that my notes from my forensics science class in 2012 probably aren’t relevant anymore.

This also means I’d really like to clean out my desk some. For reference, my desk is a plan of wood on top of two filing cabinets. I want to clear off this space as much as possible. I want an uncluttered, uncrowded work area because I like to spread out while doing homework, and I think it will help to declutter my mind. For reference, this is what it looks like currently:

What does your workspace look like? Are your more organized than me (and, if so, what are your tips for organizing your workspace)? What’s your favorite part of your workspace? Why does it work for you?

Personal Purging

This is sort of an all-around thing. I want to clean out my room and my life a little bit of the things that are cluttering me and making me unhappy. I have, for example, empty boxes that I’ve been hoarding because I know I’m going to move again and I want to be prepared—I’m going to get rid of these because I don’t need them now and I can get more boxes when this happens.

I also want to go through my old clothes, figure out what still fits and what doesn’t, and get rid of everything that either doesn’t fit or that I know I won’t wear anymore. I plan to donate these locally where possible. I really need to clean out my closet.

And, finally, I want to really look at the relationships I have and say goodbye to some toxic “friends.” I need a clean break from the people who stress me out just by having a conversation with me. That isn’t healthy, and it definitely isn’t making me happy, so I need to say goodbye.

It isn’t so much that I’m trying to live a minimalist lifestyle (though that would be interesting), but that I’m trying to be more organized and happier by getting rid of all the things in my life that I’m just not going to be using… most likely ever. It’s coming to terms with things ending, I suppose, and learning to be okay with that.

What is one thing in your personal space that you want to get rid of? Why have you kept it so far?

 

Thanks for reading!
Please feel free to answer to my questions in the comments!
I would love to hear from you~
Do you purge?

 

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