Hello again, and welcome to part 3 of my mission to get rid of 111 things by the end of January–you can read here for part 1 and here for part 2. I know a number of you have jumped in and joined the challenge, so make sure to link up your blog posts to Jenny, the instigator of this madness.

This week was an easy one. My first goal was to sort through my socks. Due to a lack of drawer space, my sock storage situation was happening in this orange bag:

And it was overflowing.

A quick sort culminated in the tossing of many high school socks. Holey high school socks. The ones with the little lambs were the hardest to say goodbye to. I haven’t worn them in years, but the lamb faces were looking very reproachful as I laid them in the trash basket.

Lay? Laid? Lay? Laid? Help! There’s a woman called Aunt Jacquie who lives inside my head, and she is wagging her finger at my lay/laid conundrum. You were an English major, and you should know better! Who let you graduate without this fundamental piece of knowledge?

By the way, Aunt Jacquie is actually my aunt. She has a PhD in English literature, wrote her dissertation on Jane Austen, and has been known to correct my grammar on facebook. However, Aunt Jacquie has also come to form part of my internal grammatical conscience–I call this embodiment “Aunt Jacquie Number 2.” How this happened I’ll never know–no schizophrenic tendencies on my part, no sirree.

But let’s stop talking about the monsters in my head and return to the socks: goodbye little lambs! Maybe you’ll be able to forgive me one day–not only for throwing you away, but also for possibly saying something grammatically incorrect in reference to your final resting place.

The bag of socks was looking much more under control by the time I was through with it.

The tally: 7 pairs in the trash. They were shortly joined by some old underwear. Out with the old, in with the nude! That’s my motto when it comes to gross old underwear.

At this point some resurrected socks from the bottom of the bin found their way onto my feet.

That’s a fun side effect of this purging exercise: rediscovering some awesome stuff that was buried for years, and can now be enjoyed again. Plus, I love having toasty toes.

At this point my sister Erica called me, and we spent the next 70 minutes hanging out on the phone. Not exactly talking . . . just kind of hanging. She was drilling holes and installing some curtain rods in her new digs, and I was absently floating through my own closet, trying things on and asking her advice about what should join my pile of purged items for the week.

J: So Erica, I’m up to 22 things down, 8 to go. I’m thinking of getting rid of this skirt with the red and blue.

E: The red and blue?

J: Yeah, it’s got like a red background and some blue plant-type things on it. It’s that really cheap material, you know, I used to wear it over jeans.

E: It can go.

J: Okay, awesome.

*drilling noises*

J: So I might get rid of my wedding shoes. Slippers. You know.

E: Yeah, I bet those are disgusting.

J: They totally are! I can’t even bend them! They’re stiff with, like, sweat or something.

*more drilling noises*

E: They can go.

J: Okay, so Erica, what about that blue and purple nightshirt thingy from Charlotte Russe? You know, the one that’s kind of clingy, but it’s kind of nice for the summer?

E: Well is it flattering? ‘Cause if not, it can go.

It wasn’t that flattering, so it went.

With her help and emotional support (along with her steady, signature mantra of “it can go”), the pile swelled to its final version.

That includes a lazy Susan we haven’t used for the past 4.5 years, an old computer game, some books, a pair of blister-inducing shoes, and some random paraphenalia.

You can see the red and blue skirt peeking out from underneath the grey miniskirt.

And see what I mean about those wedding slippers? Totally disgusting. Warped with sweat, I tell you.

Next week will be the final installment of the 111 adventure–and it’s not too late to join! I’ve had so much fun reading your thoughts about clutter, de-cluttering, and your advice about what should stay and what should go. You guys are just plain awesome. Possum. Awesome-possum.

Have a great weekend, lovely readers and friends!