Resolution #1: Purge! Or letting go.

Yup, I made a boring one. Clean up and get organized.

Now, storage really hasn't become a problem yet. You tend to live pretty efficiently when you're continuously planning your next move, packing up, and moving to a new apartment (notorious for limited storage space). But over years, you tend to accumulate ... stuff. And it all seems pretty important.

First, I have boxes of books from school. I'll bet you do too. Oh Amazon textbook trade-in, where were you years ago when I needed you? I did alright in undergrad with the book exchange, but that was only around my last year or so and didn't really help me on the other side of the country.

It turns out that trading in your textbooks isn't worth it, if you can sell them in the marketplace! For example: I had a pristine finance textbook that they'd take as a trade in for $10. I sold it in the marketplace for $57. I can price my books low, because I'm really just trying to get rid of them. And I'd like to tell myself that I'm helping someone out who would otherwise struggle to afford a book that, new, costs three times as much. And it's fascinating to see the names and addresses where they've all been going. Between that, and media mail rates at the USPS on the way home from work, this is turning into a fairly successful operation!

Then there's the stacks of boxes in the closet, of which you have to open every single one until you find what you're looking for. These are all now labeled, and if I can get rid of more of these books, I can condense the boxes even more. But I'm stuck on what to do with the specially printed readers - suggestions? I have a full box.

Then there's the clothes. I only buy and keep clothes that I love, but you can see how this might get overwhelming over the years. (Yes, I still have clothes from high school ... and maybe some from junior high school ...) Some just don't fit any more. Some are so old and worn, that I should really stop wearing them to work, as wearing worn out clothes doesn't actually motivate anyone to pay you more.

Among deciding what stays and what goes is deciding what to fix and what to let go. Favorite black pants with the missing hook? Fixed. And worn liberally since. Although now I have an entire box of what look like extremely large bra hooks, and I don't intend on making my own bras thank you. Shoes with the loose button are almost fixed. Pilly, shrunken sweaters that are too warm for California? Out.

So, I've made a little progress. There's a lot to go - organizing paperwork, craft supplies, cards. And moving boxes I haven't even unpacked yet. Here's to a neatly organized home in 2010!