A couple of weeks ago I looked back and realized we have generated Declutter and Exercise (Accountability) threads since the spring of 2008. It's always good to finish projects, and we are moving forward, but these threads have a form of blinder since they're only four weeks at a time. They haven't allowed us to see as easily where we have come from. Here are a few of our past threads, selected because they represent our beginning, and a few points along the way.

March, 2008 thread

January, 2009 thread

Our project, one year out - March 2009

One year ago, the Dec. 2009 thread

Last month's thread

I just walked through my living room after a long hot soak in the master bathroom. There is a lot of the beautiful faux limestone Italian tile in view than there has been in years. Every room in my house has been rearranged, but I can also say that every room in my house now has more room. Okay, my office shrunk this fall when I moved five antique trunks in here and stacked them around three walls. My office is the room where I work from the center at stations around the edges, and it didn't matter if that space contracted in here. The bathrooms, closets, even the garage have improved with both less stuff and more organization for what remains.

I'm starting this thread in late December because we tend to look back and look forward in December, and I wanted a few of those observations to be there in the beginning of the January 2011 thread to help propel us forward.

maeve has gone through the trauma of losing a house and the artifacts of many lives, but is now experiencing the miracle of building a new home. It takes a community, and her community is so hardy that they work in cold blowing snow to put up her bubble of warmth and light.

Kat has recovered incredibly from health problems of a few years ago that she's not only working on her house, she gets out and hikes and walks around her town.

Susan has pushed and shoved room contents around a huge old house and created zones where she can pursue her many interests and work.

Michelle is just miraculous. In case someone reads this many years down the road who wasn't along for the ride, last year is when they detected cancer, and she conquered it with the help of a lot of great people in her community and in her virtual family. And then, as if that wasn't enough, came Jeremiah. I can't think of a single individual who had earned such a shot at complete joy, and it made for an incredible year for all of us who read along. Michelle's cancer thread It started on January 14, 2010. What a year.

So this is where we might want to sum up and look forward, all in one month's thread. I can see the difference here, but I can also see the slow progress as a distraction from other things I want to do. The mention of a "grand gesture," whether a garage sale or other giveaway is still in the back of my mind. I usually weigh these questions around "what should I keep for my children, and what will my children find to be burdens?" Inheriting antiques can be a great curse. Add to that the instincts of a librarian or archivist, and you have a lot of work ahead. (I think I have a New York Times article in my eBay workspace about the curse of antiques. I'll post of link if I find it again one of these days).

Get healthy, get fit, get organized, get moving. And lets see where we are at the end of 2011. (Here's hoping we'll be calm, organized, rich and not-so famous that we can't live with it.)

SRS