The accounting system isn't the point

I've thrown away several things this year where I wished I was using a different accounting system to tally things. When I got rid of 3 old hoses, I wished I was counting in linear feet (3 50 foot hoses adds up fast!). When I put the old baby swing on the boulevard with a FREE sign on it and it disappeared that day, I wished I was counting in square footage regained. Or calories burned doing a happy dance that I didn't need to walk around the damn thing anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to bet that many people think that keeping track and getting rid of 2013 things in a year is stupid. I'll admit, it does sound a little weird. But you can set whatever goal your little heart desires: things, linear feet of baseboards visible, weight in grams or ounces or pounds or whatever (I'll be crying for this one when we get rid of our old lawnmower), minutes or hours decluttering, square footage reclaimed...

How you keep track of your progress isn't the point. The point is to get rid of the crap in your life.

How am I doing? Not fantabulous, thanks for asking. I'm just shy of 1100 things and we are 75% done the year, so I'm about 400 things behind. Maybe I shouldn't have spent so much time designing birth announcements for the baby. I'm not heartbroken, mind you, because there's still time. My progress usually picks up in the fall, and there's still several months to get rid of stuff.