Can you throw out 50 things to change your life?

Gail Blanke is a word-class motivator whose vision is to empower men and women to live truly exceptional lives.

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You'll love her book "Throw Out Fifty Things, Clear the Clutter, Find your Life."

So what do you toss? Blanke answers this question by giving you the “rules of disengagement.’’

They are:
■ Rule 1. If the item, memory, job, or even person is weighing you down, get rid of it.
■ Rule 2. If the thing is not contributing something positive, let it go.
■ Rule 3. If it takes you a long time to decide whether something needs to be tossed, throw it out.
■ Rule 4. If you’re afraid to throw out something, get rid of the fear.

Can you find 50 things? I started my spring cleaning at home with my Master Bedroom and can't figure out how all that stuff got there since last spring. Using Gail's idea of writing down what you've tossed, so far, I've managed:

1. All old magazines - there had to be 50, but unfortunately, Gail only lets us count all of them as one object.
2. Cleared out all the stuff under the bed, mostly books, free weights and exercise bands (bad feng shui for anything to be under your bed, but that's for another article).
3. Tossed all the old articles I had ripped out of the magazines and stuffed in a drawer in my nightstand that were of great workouts, health tips I couldn't live without, recipes - I never looked at them in the past year, so out they went.
4. Then I moved to my antique desk/secretary/display cabinet and tossed out more articles I had saved and moved mementos of my father to their own space in a small antique trunk.
5. Tossed old football season passes.
6. Tossed old folder of decorating ideas that were from the first time we decorated our house.
7. Tossed out old receipts.
8. Tossed out empty ipod box and directions - I'll let my son teach me what I don't know.
9. Tossed out old candles that their color had started to change (no idea how old they were and why they were in my desk!)

And I have to say, throwing out 50 things is much harder than it seemed when I first started. Now that I'm on a roll, I think I'll move on to the chest in the bedroom and the various size clothes we have to have for skinny days, fat days and that extra size either way. Or maybe I'll wait until next spring to tackle the clothes project!