I feel oppressed by this dresser

We started last night and it felt pretty good.  We are still working out the exact rules, like whether we have to get rid of half our stuff in each category, or if we can just get rid of half our possessions overall and still manage to keep most of our socks and silverware (some things will be harder to give up than others), but part of me is kinda hoping that as we go through this process and focus on needs vs. wants, that maybe we'll be able to halve every category as well as our overall total number of possessions.

On the cover of "O" magazine's March issue it reads, "De-Clutter Your Life!", and when Brett brought it in from the mailbox two weeks ago, he said he almost didn't give it to me because he knew that after I read the articles I would get another one of my crazy ideas about what we need to do to eliminate our clutter and stress and arrive at the streamlined, peaceful existence I fantasize about, and he was right, but this time I've managed to convince him that this is a good idea.

The message that seems to be repeated by everyone from organizational experts to Zen Buddhist masters all offering advice on how to achieve peace and happiness in this life is that one should fill one's life with only those things that are absolutely necessary and things that bring us joy, and it turns out this dresser was doing neither for me.  It was in reading some of these articles that I realized I actually was feeling oppressed by the thing, because I had bought it from an acquaintance who was moving, because she was selling her entire bedroom set, and I needed a bed and decided I could not turn down the $50 dresser that was part of the deal--wrong mentality completely.

I am the opposite of "highly organized people", as described in the article, "Everything You Need to Know About Taming Chaos But Were Too Disorganized To Ask" (did I mention this magazine was written with me in mind?), in that I tend to accumulate ridiculous amounts of unnecessary stuff by listening to the voices in my head that say, "I could need this someday..."  Or  "Sure, I don't have anywhere to put this, but it's on sale!"  and coming from a clutter-collecting, organizationally-challenged family also adds the, "I don't want to hurt my mother's feelings, so I guess I will keep this" (see the As Seen on T.V. toothpaste dispenser on the far left corner of the dresser that has been sitting there since my mother gave it to me for Christmas.....that will be donated along with the dresser, and the T.V. that Brett has had since his youth that we were keeping in the bedroom "In case we ever decide we want to watch movies in bed again"). 

Here is the before picture of the oppressive dresser:

And here it is after I cleared it off and emptied it and we moved it out to the front porch where it is waiting (with the aforementioned T.V.) to be picked up by a local charity:

In addition to trying to halve our possessions, both for the fun of seeing if we can do it, and, more importantly, in the pursuit of a more peaceful existence, I am hoping to also achieve an attitude makeover so that I come out of this the kind of person who values things, takes good care of them, and therefore only allows things into my life that are worth caring about.  Like the Seinfeld episode where Jerry rejects a new friend saying he only has enough room in his life for 3 friends and those spots are currently filled, I want to be the kind of person who can say no to stuff that I don't need, or don't want, because I only have a limited amount of space in my life and it is reserved for things that I need or that give me joy.