Break Through...! Woohoo!

Hi everyone. I hope weekend was useful to you all. This weekend and last I have spent Sunday going through a lot of my stuff, especially my closet. I keep trying to find better ways to organise it all. I have too much stuff and not enough space. I like to buy things my family uses on sale, so I end up with 3 and 4 of everything. I have about ten toothbrushes for myself, but I must contend that they discontinued making them and so I bought the rest I found on my last trip to the States. I haven't seen them in California or here in Ontario the past three years. So I have all this stuff, it does get used and I restock when I see these items on sale. I have learned over the past two months that all the stores I shop at rotate their sales and at some point in a five to six week span have the same sales on the items I use.

I have a form of OCD, my dad has OCD but in a different area of his life. I never saw it in myself until last week. I thought it was hoarding or keeping things I would need. Confession: I have been keeping my receipts to everything for the past four years. I didn't know if I would need them to show the court that I paid for everything for me and my daughter and that I actually did things with her or to show immigration that my life with my husband is real. In regards to court I was granted my move in April of 2008, didn't need the receipts and immigration only took four months and we didn't even need to have an interview, I sent them sufficent evidence and yet had lots to show if they wanted an interview.

I got rid of a lot of things before I moved, I donated boxes of books, CDS and movies to the library down there. I gave away a lot of makeup/bath & body items to my friend. I threw out all the things my mom wouldn't let me that belonged to my daughter that was broken or missing pieces. I had a garage sale to sell all my daughter's out-grown clothes that my mom wanted me to keep (I had 8 years worth of clothes) and toys and stuffed animals that she didn't play with anymore. I also got rid of clothes that I never wore and threw out things that should of been tossed out. We moved up here and still both of us had a lot of stuff and a lot less space since we share the house with my husband, his son and my mother-in-law. I did a lot of purging of my old life to get ready for my new life here. We got up here and I still have a lot of stuff. I go through my stuff all the time and get rid of some each time. I am still in the process of finding a way to pare down.

I say this all because I am at a point where I know I have too much stuff but always want to make sure I have enough. I could give away boxes of makeup/bathroom items and still have enough for myself for a year. lol. So besides the no-buy for makeup, I am now on a no-buy for everything else, except to rebuy items that my family get down to the last one. I would like to make space on my top two shelves of my closet to use for something other than bathroom items.