unclutter | (no subject)

Hi everyone. I'm excited to be here & look forward to being inspired by everyone's uncluttering to keep up with my own!

Here are the things I'm struggling w/: I'm a US American who moved to the UK 2 years ago with my partner & our 3 cats. By necessity we did a ton of decluttering when we moved, & because money has been fairly tight since then, we were doing fairly well at not filling up our new place w/stuff.

However, things do creep in! Our city has a really vibrant freecycling/general swapping things around culture, as well as a ton of charity shops. In addition, our library system sucks, which means if I want to read something, chances are I'll have to buy it. And... I like a house that has a fair number of comforting objects in it: things that remind me of my friends or a show that is my comfort re-watch. Something to brighten the walls or a cozy blanket.

Over the holidays, while visiting my parents, my mom's said that she wants to go shopping w/me, b/c everyone else gets to go shopping w/their daughters but she doesn't, since I live in a different country. Letting her buy me something means a lot to her -- I recognize this is a way problematic attitude, but there are so many ways in which I'm a bad daughter & this is a relatively easy way to be a good one, so it's easy for me to cave. That & I tend to run my work clothes into the ground & really do need, say, new work socks & new black trousers.

All that to say, this will be a real challenge for me!

Items out: 4 (a shirt I brought w/me to wear that turned out to have a big stain on it; 3 books I don't need to bring back w/me)

Items in: I can't even count. :/