Our bedroom mid-purge (round 2).

Some of you may know that we’re working towards getting rid of a lot of our belongings. We’ve been purging as many of our things as possible to get ready for “Bringing Back The Village,” where we are going to live off of $5,000/year (housing and basic utilities excluded). I have been posting about that mostly over at Bringing Back The Village, but I did post about round one of the purge and our garage sale here.

After that post, we heard about the 100 Thing Challenge and were really inspired. In the 100 Thing Challenge, you get rid of everything except for 100 Things. We aren’t quite there yet, but we definitely aspire to be. We’ve started a second purge and it’s getting real, y’all.

It’s so hard to say goodbye!

We’ve made it through our bedroom & bathroom (to be fair, our bathroom was mostly empty anyway since we’re remodeling), The Gnome’s bedroom, and the living room. We still have to do the guest bathroom, the office/store, the kitchen, the attic, the shed, and the garage. We’ve come across some things that are really hard to let go of. A few years ago, Hubby scanned all of our pictures and we saved them on to an external hard drive and flash drives that are in our safety deposit box. But we still had a hard time letting go of the photo boxes. You can see by this picture how much use they were getting:

Finally, I told him to just do it.

That’s been the hardest so far. But I keep telling myself that we have digital copies, so it isn’t that big of a deal. I am terrified to do the kitchen. That will be the hardest room for me. It’s also the one with overflowing cabinets that I can’t open without stuff toppling over on me. Definitely needs it the most.

I have to say, it is a complete and total joy to clean the rooms that have been finished. I adore doing laundry now, because we’re down to the bare minimum. It’s quick and it’s easy. I am even selling all of the cloth diapers I was keeping for no reason. Once I get them sold, we will be down to 18 day time diapers and 3 night-time diapers.

And we’ve put over $1600 in our savings account in 13 days. That feels good.

We’ve gone from 1 tall (8 drawer) dresser and one short (3 drawer)  dresser EACH to just one short dresser each. And our closet looks great.

I can’t wait to do more!

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  • Regan

    This is awesome. I have decided that when we move we are doing a major purge and telling family not to buy anymore “stuff” for the kids. Gift cards or a check for their savings account only. I hope they comply because there are gifts from family that have gone untouched or straight to the basement. It’s a waste of space for us and money for them

  • Autumn2606

    I know this is going to sound nosey but what is the polkadot dress? LOL Just wondering. I wish I had your willpower but I am still a slave to my stuff. Maybe one day, My husband would do it in a heartbeat!

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      Hahaha it’s a Halloween costume that I need to write a review on. I was wondering if someone would notice that!

    • MinnesotaMomBlog

       I’m glad someone asked- I was beginning to think Lori moonlighted as a clown ;)

      • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori

        HAHA! I might.

  • http://mamanda-adventuresofmommyhood.blogspot.com/ Amanda

    This rocks. We are currently storing so much crazy stuff—I always keep things like concert stubs for scrapbooking, but would rather be outside than scrapbooking inside, so it’s just a pile of “stuff.” Way to go!!

  • http://twitter.com/mummytocharis Sarah

    My husband, daughter, and I live in a one bedroom apartment.  After giving birth, I had SEVERAL comments such as, “When are you moving to a bigger place?”  I replied, “Why do I need a bigger place?  If we have a bigger apartment/house, I’ll be more likely to store more junk that I don’t need.”  I have three bags in our van and a breadmaker that are going to the local thrift store.

  • http://www.thatuncomfortableitch.com/ Heather C

    You guys are spot on here! Hats off to you all. I can’t wait to read more about your adventure.

  • Nicole

    You have WAY more willpower than me, I applaud you!  That, and I would never get my husband on board a project like this!

  • wvernonSC Family

    Wow. I’m sure it WAS hard to get rid of the pictures (even if you have them digitally saved). Putting a big chunk of money in the bank always feels good though.

  • Suzy A

    I think I have 100 things in my kitchen alone! I love cooking and baking, I don’t know if I would be able to purge myself of some of my beloved kitchen gadgets! I will also be interested to see how living off of $5000 a year goes for you all. Do things like health insurance and the like count towards your $5000?

  • krystal rivera

    i love it! you guys rock! im learning quite a bit from you guys!! -krystal rivera

  • http://profiles.google.com/heidiballek Heidi Ballek

    Wow, good job, keep it up!  Motivates me to go through our whole house and organize!

  • Mandy

    Inspiring! That is something that definately takes lots of faith and discipline

  • Fralickmom

    This is inspiring. I am a neat freak and have always cleaned out my stuff at least monthly of stuff I don’t use or wear, it feels so good to do away with clutter! Its like a weight lifted off your shoulders :) but since I’ve had my twins I’ve been collecting, I don’t want to throw away memories!

  • Amymcmillan1218

    I’ve been purging the old belongings in our new house & thought that I was ‘bad’ as I felt like I was getting rid of too much, but this is a whole new level. So much, that I may just have to start over! Great job! :)

  • Blinky2112

    Holy smokes! Good for you! How did you get your hubby to agree to get rid of stuff!? Mine collects sports equipment… You’d swear he was an equipment manager! Lol! ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/alesia.southwick Alesia Cheatham Southwick

    I’m really impressed that you’re willing to do this.  I think it’s a great idea and I might have to join you.  I am not a fan of stuff–I told my husband when we got married that we weren’t going to have any junk.  Maybe now is the time to get rid of it!

  • desiree reilly

    wellme i have stuff i got  rid of f  but my extra roomis getting pack up but going to sotrage it my bears collection and i am afriad of house fires again

  • Rachel N

    That is impressive.  It would be really hard with the kids stuff, they have soooooo much stuff.  Does the $5000 include groceries or is that separate? 

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      It includes a $50/week grocery budget :)

  • sarah heart

    Wowzers, I would love to do this… But I don’t know if I would be able too!! :) I’ll have to talk it over w/ my hubby, see if he is interested…. I have a huge dresser full of stuff… that i NEVER take out lol XD maybe I should start there! keep us updated! :)  Would be interesting on seeing how you do it all. . . Especially a 50 dollar budget for meals! I would really like to see how you do that (so I can copy :D )

  • Emily V

    we really need to do this too. it is so hard but it feels so great to get rid of stuff. 

  • http://giveawayoverload.blogspot.com/ Alyssa McVey

    Wow. We try to purge every few months, but nothing like that! We really should follow your example and get rid of more. I’m tired of tripping over stuff. It’s difficult for me to find the time, though. Awesome job! I’m interested in reading about your adventures.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Valerie-Gray-Carpenter/1708831903 Valerie Gray Carpenter

    We have been de-cluttering, also. I’ve made several trips to donation centers, given baby and toddler items to expectant moms, sold a few things. We still have a long way to go but you have inspired me to keep at it.

  • Dani Sue

    Wow! I really don’t know if I could do this…especially photos. I just can’t put all my eggs in one electronic device! You’re very inspiring!

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      Oh ours are on an external hard drive and in flash drives in the safety deposit box!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Julie-Anthony-Murphy/45602676 Julie Anthony Murphy

    Wow, I can’t believe that you are doing this! I don’t think I could ever do that as I am a pack rat!

  • http://www.facebook.com/callisisaac Christina Isaac

    Wow this is really eye-opening and inspiring.  While I was reading I was sitting here taking a mental inventory of all the things that we could really get rid of.  Gosh, maybe we need to do this too!  I’m sure we would be amazed at the amount of space we actually have in our house.  LOL

  • Nicole

    Amazing what you are doing!

  • April Rupertus

    Oh wow! I would like to get rid of a ton of stuff, I just don’t think I could ever make it down to 100 items- especially with 3 kids! 

  • http://www.soxysdiamond.com/ Sarah {Soxys Diamond}

    This is really impressive. So does one dish count as one “thing” or does the set of dishes count as one? 

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      One dish is one thing in our house. But you could set the rules to fit for your family :)

  • Jo Zavala

    I have been doing this somewhat, I gave away a lot including 10 bags of just my clothes. My husband got hurt at work and so now we are living on a very limited income. We have no cable TV or local channels. We cut down to  only movies on Netflix. We have no other extras. Of course our bills are very few now. We eat mainly beans, rice, homemade bread, tortillas, rice, etc… buy produce when marked down. We are making do.

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      It’s amazing what you can THRIVE on if you put the effort forth. I don’t feel like we’re missing out at all.

  • http://www.facebook.com/whitley.lyles Whitley Lyles

    omgoodness. I can’t imagine. Great Job to you though

  • http://twitter.com/LindsaysReviews Lindsay’s Reviews

    I REALLY need to get in gear and do this also.  It will make it so much easier for the move coming up.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1676114096 Debbie Johnston

    I really enjoy reading your blog….new follower here :)

  • Anradford

    I’ve really enjoyed starting to read your blog posts! You are really inspiring me to get rid of things in my house! I’d love to start tonight, but we are packing to go out of town! :( But when I get back in a week….IT’S ON!!!

    • http://thegnomesmom.com Lori W

      You’ll have to update me on how it goes. It feels so good!