Day 11 - #Reverb10 - 11 Things

Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? 
Author: Sam Davidson 50 Things Your Life Doesn't Need @samdavidson


I really thought about this one, as I wanted to come up with things that I thought were conceivable for me to eliminate. Here's eight I could think of now:

1.) Clothes and shoes I don't wear anymore. I've done this recently, but I really need to do it again. I need to really consider when the last time I wore the items were and if it wasn't in the last month, just donate it to someone who would use it more than me. Doing this will give me more room in my closet and less hassle in finding things.

2.) All of the STUFF in the garage that we never use. We've been talking about having a garage sale to get rid of all the duplicate stuff we have. When the weather gets better, we actually need to plan one. Doing this will make the garage SO much less cluttered and open.

3.) Soda. I really want to stick with this one, but it is SO hard when your mouth is just watering for it. The best way to eliminate this is to make sure it isn't in the house (so The Hubs really needs to be on board too.) This probably won't start until 2011 since I just had a party last night and we have soda in the fridge! Doing this will make me feel healthier and "less sticky" inside.

4.) Plastic Grocery Bags. We have a couple of eco-friendly bags in the car, but we often forget to bring them into the store. First we need to buy more bags so we have enough for all our groceries. Second we need to create a habit of bringing them into the store every. single. time. It always makes me feel good when I actually remember! Getting rid of these would save A LOT of room in our already crammed "plastic bag cupboard".  

5.) Celebrity Blogs. They are taking up space on my Google Reader and I just can't keep up with them. I would much rather read about everyday people's lives, then controversial Miley Cyrus tweets and Nicole Richie-Madden's wedding deets. I am a knowledge seeker, but this is just wasting space in my brain. In fact, I'm deleting them from my reader now!

6.) Cursing. This one is going to be really hard because I have the mouth of a sailor! Most of the time the words just come out before I can even stop them. To eliminate this I'm really going to have to think before I speak and come up with some fun substitutes (suggestions are welcome!). Doing this will take some of the unnecessary fire from conversations where cursing normally comes up.

7.) Over-indulgence. I thought of this one since I did a bit too much of it this afternoon and am not feeling so hot. I drank a soda (see #3 above) and ate a TON of peanut M&Ms. Both things I really didn't need. Now I feel gross. To eliminate this, I now have this post to remind me how terrible over-indulging feels. I know I would feel healthier if I had just drank water and ate a piece of fruit!

8.) Harboring Animosity. There are a couple of people with which I tend to harbor animosity toward.  This is usually related to how they treated a friend, a situation in which I felt wronged but likely had nothing to do with me, etc. To eliminate this, I'm going to really make the effort to be kinder to these people in my lives and see how things change. When I really think about it, it is doing me no good to hold on to these feelings. I need to let them go.

A few other things I should really try to eliminate, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be include:

9.) Worrying about things I can't control.

10.) Self doubt.

11.) Over planning and over analyzing every. little. thing.

If you are still reading this post, thanks! These #reverb10 prompts are great opportunities for me to reflect, but they aren't the fun, picture blog posts I'm sure most of you are used to reading. Don't worry! I've got some fun posts with lots of pictures up my sleeve for the coming weeks!