tell me quick before I faint....

Note: I wrote this post last night, but wasn't able to finish editing it before the hubby called me away to bed. So hence the past tense.

Tell me quick before I faint, pitch them now or keep them quaint?? The issue at hand is several issues actually. Think plural in its greatest sense. Beautiful, treasured issues of Southern Living that I have hoarded ever since I began getting my own copies. Last week as I was decluttering in Zone 4 {master bedroom} I felt compelling to follow FlyLady's advice and simply purge them. When do I ever look at them?! Have I even sneaked a tiny peak at any of them in the last past year? No..... So! With great resolve I hauled them out from under the bed and put them bravely beside the recycling bin. And....for some reason....there they stayed....I guess I wasn't as ready to part with them as I thought I was. But now today, before my resolve completely dribbled away, I grabbed the basket and resolutely headed for the curb to pitch them as tomorrow the big green go-green truck is scheduled to grab them. I slowly started to dump, and then stopped as a few lovely, glossy issues fell in with a plop. It felt like I was throwing away my friends!! Standing out by the road like a ninny, I started to page through each issue for closure, tearing out ideas/pictures that nabbed my attention. A recipe for sweet potato pie with marshmallow meringue that I had baked and loved, {even a few tell-tale splatters on the page} was added to the memento pile. But the fading light of the summer night along with the whining and feasting of the mosquitoes zapped me back to reality. I could do this! I would be strong, and would fight my hoarding gene instead of letting it take a'holt of me! With a small sigh, the rest of the pile slid silently into the great netherlands of the recycling world. Who knows? Maybe, instead of living the stagnant lives of their boring hoarded existence under my bed, those old issues will someday be in my hands again as the pages of a haute new copy of Southern Living! Wait! Speaking of "new" copies, I haven't even absorbed my last two issues properly! So I shall sit and bask in the glow of my latest decluttering accomplishment whilst I lose myself in the South with my current friends instead of hanging on to those from the past.

P.S. I really think this new plan of tossing the old issue as soon as the new one arrives, will help me to heartily enjoy the issue at hand as in cooking the recipes that strike me and cutting out ideas {or finding them online and pinning them} straight away!