The Great Purge Flow Chart

In my couple of weeks off from teaching, I am attempting a great purge of our extra things. I always have excellent intentions going into such a task, but when I'm face-to-face with objects or papers that I really should get rid of, I can think of a thousand justifications to keep the item, and my good resolutions fall apart. To aid in the decision-making process, I made this:

You do not want to know how long it took me to make this chart. Experience tells me, however, that I would have spent about as much time agonizing over each item as I did designing this flow-chart. I hope that, with chart in hand, the decision-making-process for each debatable item will be much faster. As you can see, the "keep" side of the chart is to be continued with an organization chart. I have a serious problem with keeping too many sentimental mementos. While I hope this chart will cut down on those items, the organization chart (TBA) should help me even more with finding a visible/easily accessible place for the most important pictures, papers, greeting cards, playbills and ticket stubs that clutter my "memory boxes" (i.e. shoe boxes full of random stuff). After all, what good are mementos if I never even look at them?

But that's for the future. I've got to take this one step at a time if I want to be successful, so for now, I'm getting out my trash bag, my donation box, and this handy flow-chart, and preparing to purge my apartment of the superfluous stuff that surrounds me.