Finding it very challenging to read the blogs I follow, write on my blogs, and keep up with my "Operation Simplify" project...
The more I dig into the piles of stuff I have been dragging around the majority of my life, the more I find myself questioning myself. Maybe that is it. I never questioned myself before. Like a "security blanket", I just kept hauling it, oblivious of its growing weight.
In an email with a friend the other day, I was so impressed with the amount of moving she has done in the past four years. She moved from New York, to San Francisco to Utah! She told me donates most of the furniture to the Salvation Army and deducts it on her taxes. She only keeps sentimental antique family heirlooms and replaces what she needs after the move by shopping at Thrift stores and Craig's List. She tosses everything she can live without. Keeping photo albums, diaries, certain irreplaceable cooking utensils, her pressure cooker, some special books, computers, and only the clothing that fits perfectly and that she knows she would wear. She does not move food, health or beauty products.
She really opened my eyes to a new way of re-thinking my life and de-cluttering. There is going to be one heck of a donation coming down the road...and bigger piles of trash hauled away. A yard sale would be a great idea if I did not live in this senior community where the rules don't permit them. I would have to ask my daughter in law to host one at her house, and rent a huge truck to haul everything over there!
It really is an eye-opener examining all the this stuff. I am beginning to feel like one of those "hoarders". I thought I let go of a lot on our last move. Now, I am beginning to see how much crap I still have! At one point I ran out of time and energy and just told myself, I would deal with it later... Well, later is HERE and demanding my immediate attention!
4 comments:
I have way too much stuff to go through. I'm afraid to open some closets. Lots of work ahead for me :)
Wow! I could have written that post! I am SO with you on this. We have lived in the same 1000 square foot house for 37 years. Imagine if you will what my basement looks like with 37 years of crap in it!! I am in the same spot you are. Trying to simplify my life and the only way to do that is to simplify our surroundings. Since I don't have time for a major project at this time...I decided that every time I go into the basement...I am NOT coming up empty handed. In keeping with that thought, I went down to change the laundry and came up with 2 crappy old stained throw pillows and a cookie tin from some insurance company. Don't ask. I have no idea why I saved it....but it's gone now.
If I continue to do this, I will start to make a dent in the mess and then maybe when I do have the time for the major project, I'll be ready to did in.
Thanks for coming by my blog. I enjoyed your post today. You sound like my lost twin! I'll be back. Enjoy your day.
September Mom: Glad to hear I am not the only one. I know I will feel so much better when it is all done...but the process...oh my, it is just overwhelming!
Kathy: You are so welcome. I am glad I found your blog! I understand your approach to the basement, because it is overwhelming...but it is a slow process. I have been tackling it in chunks, but I wasted so much time when I had all the time in the world....Now, I have a deadline and that is why I am overwhelmed. I am going to make this a valuable lesson to learn so I don't get myself in this situation again!
I think we're all related - and my husband, too. When we moved in here we got rid of a bunch of stuff and now that we're contemplating another move, there is even more. Now that he can no longer use his power tools, I have to go through them, clean them up, and decide what kind of price to put on them. I also predict I'll have quite a contribution to the DAV or Goodwill.
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