Greek State of Mind is growing!

With the start of the USC program at the end of last summer, I opted to stop all of my activities in whatever was left of Usable Web Solutions, LLC. Those activities included keeping several websites updated on a semi-regular basis and working to promote those websites via social media. Before completely stopping my activities with UWS, I was keeping at least one website regularly updated (“regularly” = almost daily) for about 20 years. Stopping those updates and moving away from my online business was a big change for me, though not an entirely bad one. The best part of relieving myself of my UWS duties was freeing up more of my time to focus on my other small business – a small, niche apparel company.

The apparel company that I co-own with another alumnus from my fraternity is doing very well, too. Our company – Greek State of Mind – had its biggest sales year in 2015. However, we are about 10 weeks into 2016 and we have generated more revenue this year than we did during the first 40 or so weeks of 2015. In the world of small business entrepreneurship, this is the type of growth that most companies dream of achieving. We are very happy with GSOM and are excited about expanding our product lines including a shirt celebrating the Monmouth University men’s basketball team and their Bench Mob.

And speaking of the Monmouth Bench Mob, I know that I speak for all Monmouth University basketball fans when I write that we are hopeful the NCAA selection committee will make the right decision and send the Hawks to the big dance this Sunday! #FlyHawks!

One of the reasons why it took me so long to get over to the MCSPCA was because I wanted to bring over some other stuff, too. So when I went over last Friday I also brought with me a bunch of these children’s books that I used to read when I was a little kid. They’re these small little books that take classic stories and abridge them for children – pretty neat idea. Anyway, I must have donated about 30 of those books. And while I was at it, I also donated four picture/document frames that I wasn’t using.

However, in the process of digging into my two storage bins to find those books, I came across stacks and stacks and stacks of old paperwork that I filed away. So, since I have a “clean out” mindset going this month and next, I decided to go through each stack of paper to see what I really needed and what I didn’t need at all. As you might imagine, 95% of the crap that I had been hanging onto I didn’t need for anything at all. When I made my gigantic stack of stuff that was no longer necessary, I took it to work and dumped it into our security bin to be shredded and recycled.

Some of the stuff that was sent off for shredding and recycling included old bank statements (dating back to the early 2000’s for bank accounts that are no longer open at banks that no longer exist), copies of old leases, old magazines, old paperwork from when I was volunteering for my fraternity, copies of medical bills from the early 2000’s, old cable and credit card bills, and random slices of paper that I seemed to stick in here and there for whatever reason. It was a bunch of garbage and I’m glad to be rid of it. Now my one storage bin fits inside of the other storage bin because I’ve gone from two fill bins to one bin that is about half full. That’s pretty good progress.

Tonight, the clean out continues as I give away my old television that has been sitting in my kitchen and/or living room, unused, for over a year.

It was a complete disaster.

My goal was to separate the clothes that I haven’t worn in over two years from those that I wear on a regular basis or a semi-regular basis. Aside from the horrifying sight that was the heap of shirts on my bed, this was actually a very easy process because, well, when you don’t wear a shirt for over two years you know it!

While this was a good way to begin removing the excess clutter in my closet, the cleaning out process was also aggravating in many respects. Here are some of the reasons why the first phase of this clean out was annoying:

• Never Wore the Shirt. By far, the most aggravating part of the clean out process was looking at all of the shirts that I purchased and never even wore – not even once. I’m not talking about shirts that I picked up, wore out one night or wore to work one day, and then forgot about (skip down to the next category). No. I’m talking about the shirts that I purchased because they were on sale or they were buy 2, get 1 free or whatever and the never, ever wore them. Not only have these shirts created a bunch of wasted space in my closet and underneath my bed, but they’re also a great example of money that I completely wasted.
• Underutilized Shirts. This is similarly related to the previous point. While there were some shirts that I never wore, there were other ones that I remember wearing once or twice…and that’s it. Oh, and I’m not saying that I wore these shirts last week or the week before – some of these shirts haven’t been worn since I was in college. Once again – a complete waste of space and money. Damn it.
• The Frustration of Weight. If unused and underutilized shirts are in a sort of tie for the most aggravating part of this clean out process, then a seriously close second place would be looking at all of the shirts that I wore when I wasn’t as heavy. Talk about a downer. I dug out some t-shirts that I haven’t worn since about 6 years 90 pounds ago. Some people might suggest holding on to those shirts so that I have them for when I lose weight. Well, before the day comes where I start dropping weight in large quantities again, I have to figure out how to break the combined curse of my two hour commute and my diabetes medication. It ain’t easy, folks…in fact, it’s downright f’ing frustrating. Anyway, looking at all of my old clothes that I used to be able to fit into was aggravating.
• The “Good” Aggravation. I guess this final point is a bit of an oxymoron, but having all of these useless shirts laying around has me planning a trip to the local Monmouth County SPCA. I donate my old clothing to the MCSPCA because they sell the clothes and use the proceeds to help fund care for the animals. It’s a great program, actually. So I can live with the aggravation of having to drive over to the shelter because I know that the end result will be beneficial to someone’s future Fido or Kitty.

Now that the shirts have been cleaned out…my various collection of jeans are next. You want to talk about buying pieces of clothing and never wearing them? I have some pairs of jeans that still have the tags on them…