A never-ending challenge!

This new diet is messing with my head. Now don't get me wrong this is mostly a positive thing as I really am starting to feel like a new woman with all the energy and the happy. The problem is that I am taking things to extremes. What started as a little tidying up has now turned into a full blown spring clean (yes I know it is nearly autumn but in true traditional "lex-time" I am a little late). This little challenge I swear will be the death of me! I am not usually good with the whole throw away bit - not to the extreme that you see on "Grime Britain" when a pile of newspaper has toppled and crushed them to death but I always feel guilty about throwing away perfectly good things and I tend to hold onto a lot of things for sentimental value. So I am trying to be strong with myself and get rid of all this stuff but it is harder than I thought.

I decided to start with anything paper and so out came the shredder. It was never ending! Every time I thought I had finished I found yet more. The poor shredder is now looking into retirement homes it is that over-used! I decided to throw away most of my old university stuff as well. I qualified 5 years ago this autumn and not only did I have all my paperwork from those 3 years that I kept in the hope that I would continue to read them and update my skills from time to time and that have since been looked at approximately never (most of it is now out of date anyway and I also have this bad, planet-destroying habit of just reprinting a required article off the internet so that I can scribble and highlight over it) but I also had all the paperwork from all the courses and also my degree that I have done since then. Now I ask you who would get sentimental about paper? Me of course! I want to throw it away, I have no use for it, it takes up room that can otherwise be used for something else but my mind starts off with all the usual sayings like "but that was all your hard work" or "you never know you might just be able to use it." Well it is all now in about 5 binbags and waiting to go to the tip.

So you think the paper incident was bad? Well that was nothing when we hit clothes country! Thanks to this diet I have now lost over 3 and a half stone and therefore dropped a few dress sizes and therefore most of the clothing in my wardrobes no longer fits. Now the majority of people would be jumping with joy and gladly throwing it all out to make room for new smaller and more fashionable clothes but no not me I start to worry instead. Should I throw/give them all away but what if I gain weight again and well I didn't buy that top very long ago.

I took a big deep breath, I took a binbag, and then I started to throw them all away. I was doing so well but then my gran found out what I was doing. All my binbags of clothes are now currently sat in her house! Do you see people what I am dealing with? It is not my fault I am the way I am because it is all down to my genetics!!! My gran is less than half the size that I was and yet she is going to wear those clothes! The clothes that she is not going to wear she will pass on to her friends for them to wear. I am actually waiting to see which one of these elderly ladies will be going out wearing my French Connection t-shirt that says "I may not be totally perfect but parts of me are fcuking brilliant."

There has been one item of clothing that I am unsure about - my magic cardigan. This cardigan was knitted for me by my gran (yes the same gran that is currently wearing all my clothes) back when I was a student nurse to keep me warm during the long night shifts. It has served me well over the years. Now it is magic not because it has wonderful healing powers or that it can make the night shift pass faster but because after a little malfunction with the washing machine it now has the ability to grow. Every time I put this cardigan on it seems to have grown that little bit more - it is huge! A few people can actually huddle together for warmth in it. In short it is now much use at work any longer. The trouble is that my gran knitted it for me and it was my first work cardigan and I don't feel I can get rid of it for sentimental reasons however it is so big that it will not stay on a hanger it is so big. I don't know what to do with it.

I have also hit the kitchen cupboards. Not for food because food is not allowed unless it comes in dust formation at the moment. How myself and my family have not had some mad illness before now is beyond me. I think the best expiry date I found was 1997. Now I do not get too worked up about expiry dates in general (unless dairy or meat) but there is a limit.

This challenge is never ending and I wish I had not started it but I have to keep going because there will be a great feeling of satisfaction once it is done. There have been some positives in that I have finally found my birth certificate and I found £10 that I did not know I had (already spent!). I am not sure the mental anguish is worth it though and I still do not know what to do about the magic cardigan!

Anyway off to the tip I go!