I'm behind! Thanks to back-blogging, I can publish this like it happened on the 17th...

Honestly I thought we would be moving into our new house already by this time of the month. This would mean I'd be unpacking everything we own (which would be a great time for organizing and de-cluttering). Instead we are still here in the basement, I can't find my camera, and we are really trying not to open any boxes. My winter coat is in there somewhere, so it had better stay above 50 a few more weeks.

Tonight's project I have named The Lotion Snowball. Similar to the debt snowball. Except there is no spreadsheet required.

I have this tower of plastic drawers that are full of junk. Not necessarily trash, but things that have no home. I'm hoping to disband it when we move, as I am not going for the dorm room look at this point in my life. The bottom drawer of the tower is full of lotion, acrylic paint, and nyquil. See what I mean about things with no home?? Where do other people keep their acrylic paint?

I pulled out every bottle of lotion. 15 bottles. I remembered buying one. Where do these things come from?? Most bottles I remembered recieving as gifts, some as far back as high school graduation. I'm not sure if lotion has a shelf life, but I feel safe assuming that anything in my lotion drawer 7+ years old is past it's prime.

I threw those away.

My plan is this:

1. Set out the smallest bottle of lotion to use up first.
2. Use lotion more often.
3. Don't buy any new lotion.
4. When the smallest bottle is used up, move on to the next smallest bottle. (Snowball effect).

I've keep reading that coconut oil is an effective natural choice to replace conventional lotions. Once I work my way out of the lotion drawer maybe I'll try that.

For the month of October I'm doing one thing a day that is a step towards a simpler way of living -- less cluttered, less wasteful, less distracted. My goal through this month of less is that by taking a new step every day, I will be able to live in a way that is more organized, more stewardly, more purposeful. Read more about it here, and let me know if you're joining in!