I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. A purge. Then things like the earthquake in Haiti happen, or you read a particularly moving piece about a homeless person, or you see a friend lose a beloved pet, or you see two friends lose them… and it makes even more sense.
I have all these things, these material things that sit unused on shelves, or tucked into little corners of the house or shoved under the seat in my car. Thousands of dollars worth of THINGS. Unused, uncared about, unnoticed and completely unnecessary. Last weekend, on a whim, I ransacked my closet and got rid of anything I couldn’t remember having worn in a year. There was a lot more I could have gotten rid of, but, baby steps. Then I made Cassidy do the same thing and she got rid of more than I did. Off to the Goodwill it all went. I always have Cassidy go with me when I donate stuff. I think it’s important that people she be a part of that. I did some searching the other day though and found a battered women’s shelter in a nearby town so this weekend, when I do another purge, that’s where we’ll be taking them all.
Then I’m going to move onto some of the big ticket items. I realized on a daily basis I carry around about $2300 worth or stuff between the purse, DSLR + accessories, Flip, iPhone, etc. It’s silly. But, unfortunately it’s all stuff I’d feel lost without. The spare iPhone that’s been sitting there unused for a year, the two Window’s smart phones, the HD mini camcorder… not so much! I don’t need five Coach purses, I don’t need 10 pairs of black strappy heels, I just don’t. So I’m going to start getting rid of these things. Sell some on Ebay, Craigslist, some of it I’ll just give away. We could use the money right now for sure, bit good karma can be just as important.
There is so much more though. The guest bedroom is full of boxes we haven’t unpacked since we moved a year and a half ago! THINGS! I haven’t used my desktop for anything other than data storage and a print server in over a year. THINGS! We have a cat house that the cat’s haven’t cared about just sitting there (although, moving it upstairs where they always are might help), extra dog crates, the list just goes on and on and on.
After The Purge, The Decorating will once again commence. Looking at Brittney‘s pretty pictures of her house inspired me. The clean, uncluttered, pretties are what I want in a home. Keyword: UNCLUTTERED.
I can’t wait. And of course, I’ll take lots of pictures along the way.