Could you lose a ton of weight this year? Literally, one ton: 2,000 pounds.

This is not about body weight, of course, but belongings. This year, could you sell, donate, and discard 2,000 pounds of stuff?

Automobiles don’t count. Nor does a set of weights since a collection of dumbbells, barbells, and weight plates usually run 300 to 500 pounds. (Plus, there’s nothing easier to sell used online than weights.) Major appliances don’t count either since they’re usually replaced with a newer model.

But everything else goes toward the 2,000-pound mark. Furniture (both indoor and outdoor), tools,  small kitchen appliances, toys, sporting goods, knick-knacks, canned food, blankets, old media (CDs, DVDs, tapes), and clothing counts. So do books and magazines – that’s at least 200 pounds for most households – along with excess school/office supplies, and paper of all sorts that can be scanned (if necessary) and/or shredded.

Keep a running total with each trip to the donation center, recycling bin, or landfill. Use a scale for easy-to-weigh items like books but otherwise make realistic estimates of weight. Losing a ton means dropping 167 pounds of stuff a month or between 5 and 6 pounds a day.

Here’s the catch. You also must add the amount of weight brought into the home. Trips to the grocery store do not count. Nor do home repair/maintenance items. But everything else must be added. New clothes, household decor, additional TVs, books, and paper. Think back to Christmas. How many pounds of stuff came into the house?

Possessions weigh us down and it doesn’t occur overnight. It happens daily when we bring in 5 or 10 pounds of stuff but don’t get rid of anything. Much like making an effort to lose body weight, when we become mindful of everything placed in the body, it’s necessary to keep a log of the in-flow of stuff to lose a ton of weight and make significant changes.

How much weight can you lose? I’ve thought of this recently after cleaning out a one-bedroom condo after a family member died. He was not a pack rat or hoarder, just someone with all of the typical things a household needs. In such a situation, it’s hard to find a home for an iron and ironing board, toaster, microwave, coffee maker, dishes, flatware, brooms and mops, coolers, framed wall art, and furniture of all sorts. Most of it went to donation centers. For bigger items, I found people online to take them away.

Could he have dropped a ton of weight? Probably not, though he did have a few minor collections. Like some seniors, he did not have much of his life digitized, so there were a couple of hundred pounds of paper, files, magazines, and books.

This is not about making things easier for your loved ones when you pass, though that’s a noble byproduct of this exercise. Instead, think in terms of how much lighter you’ll feel after dropping a ton of weight. Much like losing 10 or 20 pounds of fat, eliminating 2,000 pounds of household excess will be a life-changing accomplishment.