The Happiness Project 11.2.10

Hi Guys,

I thought now would be a great time to make this post. You may have noticed I have been cleaning out and selling a lot of my makeup and a lot of you have asked me why. I will tell you why and how it all came about.

I have recently started reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. I am only a quarter of the way into it but am SO inspired (watch this quick segment about why she wrote this book HERE ). Inspired to organize and attempt to downsize and live a bit more "simply". I will go more into this later but I decided to start with my clothes and makeup.

I first started with clothing and shoes, I am the first to admit I have a lot of clothes and a lot of shoes. I do not REALLY need all of it (I guess need is a subjective term haha). I first cleaned out 4 bags of clothing and 2 of shoes to be donated to charity. I love donating to charities because you are helping out people and cleaning out and organizing your own space. It makes me feel food to know I am helping out others. A lot of people were fortunate to be born into the families they were and to be able to live as comfortably as they do. I think it is important to give back in anyway you can. Donating clothing and shoes is the least you can do and VERY easy. I urge everyone to try to donate something, even if it is only one piece. There is someone out there that can use it! The two charities I use are the Salvation Army (they have drop offs all over) and VVA (you can schedule a pick up of bags of clothing here http://www.pickupplease.org/vva/veterans-donation.aspx?gclid=CMbU2-XBg6UCFU465QodUleQOw).

After the clothing and shoes were done I moved on to more treacherous territory....makeup! Ah! The amount of makeup I had was actually scaring me. I felt like I should be on an episode of hoarders. Really there is no need for that much, will I still buy makeup? Of course! But, what it has helped me do is realize I don't need so much, I should be pickier and helps me find things easier (which means getting ready in the morning quicker!!). The funny thing is, I do not even wear a lot of makeup daily! Unfortunately, I couldn't donate the makeup, all makeup donations have to be unused and new for sanitary reasons, (obviously), so to make a long story short that is what the reason was for all the blog sales.

I highly highly recommend the Happiness Project to everyone. I am going to review it later on my blog and post some helpful tips in case you are interested in starting to organize also.

Two great tips I will leave you with today are:

- the one-minute rule (learn about it here): If you can do it in one minute, just do it right away. Do not leave it for later. I am so guilty of coming home from work and throwing things around. It would take me one minute to hang up my coat, but I dont. I throw it down and pile other stuff on top. The one-minute rule really helps and I love it! DO not procrastinate. Procrastination is the root of all evil, well not at all but thats funny to say!

- tidy before bed: Every night, take 5 minutes to tidy up. You don't realize but this sort of tidy-ing up really helps to combat the clutter and mess.

Gretchen, the author has a great blog here: http://www.happiness-project.com/

I have also been reading this great blog on organizing daily: http://unclutterer.com/

Hope this post has inspired you to donate to charity and embark on your own happiness project.

Get organizing!

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