Unshopping

I had a couple of incidents this last weekend that made me realize that I no longer had the desire to shop.  On Saturday, my husband and I drove around to do some errands and get some things for the house.  We went to a town that's 45 minutes away, so he asked me where else I'd like go since we were out there.  I thought about the normal places that I like to shop and couldn't think of one place that I wanted to buy anything in, except for an organic grocery store.

Today, a friend wanted to go shop at Goodwill with me.  We've done this before and I used to purchase name brand purses to put in my shop booth.  Instead, I took the opportunity to bring in the 6 boxes, 1 bag and stereo that I had decluttered, and brought them to Goodwill.  Inside the store, I talked myself out of the 1 thing I was tempted to buy.

But in a weak moment, we stopped at a garage sale on the way home.  I found a set of 3 nesting bread pans from a specialty name brand for $7.50.  They were new and since I had our loaf pan earmarked for replacing, I thought this was a good thing to get.

Not a bad trade at all, today.  I unloaded 6 boxes, 1 bag, a stereo system for a set of 3 nesting loaf pans.  And I don't feel like I need to go shopping at all, except for groceries.

Our old loaf pan is already in the next giveaway box.

Closing a Shop Booth

Shop booth last winter

I've had a little shop booth in our downtown area, our town is the home of the original occasional sales so we get a lot of weekend traffic too.  With recent family crisis, I've decided to close it indefinitely and last night I hauled everything home.  Talk about going backwards in decluttering!

Fortunately, I had a 75% off sale the last couple weeks so there wasn't a lot left.  I had 5 medium sized boxes, a tea cart and dressmaker form torso.  That's it.  But I didn't have the heart to bring that stuff in the house all at once, so I left it in my truck to take a box out at a time.

I am making an inventory list of each box as I donate it to charity.  Probably not needed, but you get a better tax record that way.  Just a little prep work and it's gone.  Unfortunately, I am finding a few things that I don't want to donate.  These are either things that I want to keep or sell elsewhere.

Why?!

No one wanted this stuff at 75% off.
I already decided awhile ago that I didn't want this stuff back.
All this takes time away from other things, and an untidy pile in the living room.

I just need to pack it all up, no matter what.   Or else I'll be "playing" with my semi-wanted stuff for a long time to come.