Whew!  Of course the first two days into December were busy or to state it more accurately – already scheduled.  So my 31 Things in December Project almost didn’t get started until the 3rd of December, but as I was going along I realized that I could count what I was already doing as part of the project.  I was originally thinking of things to do specifically for the project so I hadn’t made the connection that what I was doing could be included in the project, which is just plain silly.  As you may know from my posts one of my best friends is moving away.  Yes, I can still talk to her and keep in touch, but visiting will be a much larger ordeal and will not happen as often as we would like.  So this past week I spent two days visiting her just to see her two more times before she left.  The last visit was on December 1st, the first day of my project.  I hadn’t thought of something to do for the project.  But I did get a new rug which is to replace TWO rugs in my entry way.  So without even thinking about my project I was able to get rid of two things, but since I replaced it with one, some sticklers might consider the “getting rid of count” at one.  But that is ok, it is still ONE thing.  And it is much easier to vacuum, clean, wash, etc. ONE rug instead of two.  And that is the point of this project.  If making more space, if getting rid of things, if de-cluttering, if fixing something helps make life easier and less time is consumed then that is what we want.

Then on December 2nd, I had a Nia class to teach late morning and then my mother-in-laws memorial service to go to, so again I was not thinking of my project.  But I was thinking of making sure the house was not a disaster when some people came to visit afterwards, so I employed my refrigerator cleaning technique.  With my technique I don’t empty out the fridge so I don’t always throw stuff out.  But this time I decided to throw a few things out.  Afterwards I realized that my getting rid of stuff in the fridge could be considered “things” for my project.  So, yay, since I had other things on my mind it worked out great.

Then today – I made sure I did it BEFORE I posted so I could be honest – I did one of the things I was originally thinking about doing for this project.  Now this is going to probably sound really silly to a lot of people, especially men, but I’m going to share anyway.  First I am going to try to set it up so it might not sound as silly.  If someone is going to do a project, let’s say, build something, they might need a variety of tools in order to do it correctly.  A cook or a chef usually has many tools at his/her disposal in order to cook a nice meal.  A hairdresser has many tools in order to style, cut, color, and work on people’s hair.  Well, for some the same thing goes with make-up.  I don’t think I wear a lot of make-up but I do realize that there are some tools that help with the make-up applying process.  One tool some of you that wear make-up might use is an eyelash or eyebrow brush.  Well, I don’t think that there is any sense in buying them.  What I do is I use the brushes in that come with the mascara I buy.  I like certain shaped brushes when I apply mascara so sometimes I will buy my mascara based on the brush.  Well, since I use the brushes in my make-up applying process sometimes I don’t throw the tube of mascara away even when I have stopped using it.

Mascara does not last a long time.  I think they have even perfect formulas so that is gets clumpy and sticking after about 45 days so you are forced to go out and buy more.  Anyway . . . with the fact that there is a point that I stop using it and I use the brushes after I am done with the mascara, I have ended up with a lot of unused tubes of mascara in my drawer.  Now, my intent as I save every tube is to “deal with it”, but it is a messy process.  It is not that it takes a long time, but when I am doing my make-up I am usually trying to get out of the house so I don’t want to take time to stop and look at all the tubes I have, decide which brushes I might want, then wash them out.  I am too busy trying to get ready.  Then when I am home I don’t think, “Oh my mascara brushes!”  So you might be able to imagine how they can pile up.  So that is one of the things I have taken care of as part of my 31 Things in December Project.

I went through all of the tubes of mascara I had.  I decided which brushes seemed as if they would make good tools, then I pulled them out of the tubes, THREW THE TUBES AWAY (YAY!), and washed the brushes.  I ended up with a few brushes, but they are all different shapes and different bristle hardness, so I think they will be able to be used differently.  I am going to evaluate them when they are dry to make a final decision.  If the bristles are to soft after they dry then they really aren’t what I want.  So I might end up throwing away even more.

But now I have a little more space in my make-up drawer.  I know the whole make-up thing might seem silly to some, but as I stated the whole idea of this project is to help eliminate things to help free up space and/or time.  With less things in my drawer there is more space which creates more time because I am not having to paw through useless tubes of mascara.  Plus with this particular thing I have created tools that will help me apply my make-up more efficiently.  Not that I actually do that often anymore because I dance it off when teaching Nia, but when I do it is nice to have help.

So?  What about you?  Have you been able to get rid of at least three things?  Or move somethings from the broken pile to the usable pile?  Have you decided to participate in this exercise of making space?  Well, share.  Tell us what you have done to make your life more free.