30 Things in 30 Days – The First 7 Things

My 30 days have started! Here are the first 7 things that didn’t make the cut.

1. Glass Vase … I took stock of the number of things in my household that could hold flowers. Including a ceramic vase that I love, I have water jugs and glasses and bottles–all that would make fantastic, quirky vases. Well, they will if they make it through the full 30 days of 30 things!

2. Floor Lamp (not pictured below) … My current home is well lit and I have no need for a floor lamp, but that frugal part of me was tempted to keep it for the next apartment I move into. I realized I may never need this item, don’t need to live with “what if’s” and decided to let it go.

3. Expired Packages … Embarrassingly I moved expired food from one house to the next. I was happy to have a no-brainer item to choose for my first 7.

4. Blue Bag … Sentimentality kicked in with this one. It is a practical souvenir from my first time living abroad. I love it, but I decided to let it go because it has sat, unused, in a closet for years. It is old and fraying and I have better things to remember that time by than something I never look at.

5. Unread Books … I absolutely LOVE books, but I HATE moving them. So I’m starting with a couple books and may add more in a couple weeks.

6. Water Bottle … I keep it because it is an environmentally friendly option. I don’t use it because the weight of this style is too much for me to carry, so I decided there is no reason for me to keep it.

7. Bowls … It may sound weird, but this was the hardest item of the week to get rid of. These bowls serve a particular function for food storage and during food prep. I’m a creature of habit and love their size. They don’t match any of my other dishes; they are simply their own entity. They were also free–who doesn’t love free, useful stuff?!

I made the choice to get rid of them by asking myself this question: do I have enough to function just as well without these two bowls? It’s a resounding yes. And that means I don’t need to keep them.

So what have you gotten rid of this week? How did you make your decisions? 

Journey through all the posts in this series:
Post #1: 30 Things in 30 days: Introduction
Post #2: The First 7 Things
Post #3: Choosing 8-14
Post #4: The Next 7
Post #5: Almost the End
Post #6: The Final 2 and What to do With it All

This post was originally written in 2017 and republished in 2020.