Starting to think that the key to happiness is having less stuff cluttering up my life. Intellectually, I completely agree with the idea of getting rid of things that aren't being used in a longer. I'm not talking about cherished possessions that one looked upon reminded me of days gone by or someone very special. I'm talking about junk, garbage and miscellaneous gadgets, that seemed to make their home with me. And like squatters, never seem to leave.

Living in a relatively large home, mainly because we have a large family, my closet is a rather nice sized walk in. That's not to say that I can actually walk into it, though. So I thought this would be a good place to start de-cluttering. And because it's completely full, wall-to-wall of stuff, clothes and probably worthless gadgets, it MUST be a good place to start. Now before you go in think that there's no such thing as worthless stuff, maybe we need a definition.

My definition of worthless stuff is perfectly usable products that haven't been used or even considered to be used in over a year. Things like the paraffin wax heating appliance. Now this little machine keeps paraffin wax to a liquid state, and you then are supposed to dip your feet into it several times to build up a nice wax coating. After allowing the wax coating to cool, the thought is to then peel away the wax along leaving your skin, soft and supple. The reality is that it's a big bother to use, is messy and my feet aren't that noticeably softer after use.

I think I used this wonder of modern gadgetry exactly 4 times and gave it a prominent place in my closet. That was 3 1/2 years ago, and it hasn't been used since. The thing is, you never know when you want to dip your feet and hot wax, if only to take your mind off the other problems life your way that day.

Then there is the clothes that fit section of the closet, the clothes that almost fit if I lose another 10 pounds, which I've planned to do for the last two years. I think I can make a case for keeping the clothes that fit in even the ones that almost button. My husband suggested that I give away the clothes in the next two areas of the closet that hold the "I've got to lose the least 25 pounds before the zipper has any chance of closing" and my pre give birth to children clothes. This is a typical husband suggestion that just doesn't understand the importance of this area. As long as I keep the "I've got to loose at least 25 pounds to fit into clothes", I have an incentive, at least in theory. And if I can get into these, it's very possible that I can fit into my pre-mom clothing also. Giving birth to 8 kids shouldn't completely end that dream, right?

So maybe I was wrong in thinking that there was a lot of clutter in the closet. It's very possible that I was looking in the wrong place to find the unused gadgets and junk that needs to be tossed out. Come to think of it, maybe I just need a different definition of worthless stuff. More like anything in my husband's side of the closet that he hasn't used in a while. or maybe I'll start in the garage [smile]