Monday, August 12, 2019

The Urge to Purge

John and I moved into our house almost twenty years with two kids.  We have a very large unfinished basement that can hold a heck of a lot of JUNK!  Furniture that's still good but isn't wanted anymore? "Let's store it in the basement."  All the kids sports equipment that they wanted "just in case?"  "Let's store it in the basement."  Books that couldn't possibly fit onto our shelves?  "Let's store them in the basement." The wedding gifts like a glass swan that you never used but felt guilted into keeping? Yep. The basement.  Here's one of those gems:


You get the idea.

After cleaning out my parents house with 50 years of accumulation over the past year, I had a sudden urge to purge my house..  The truth is, while fun to look at ALL the stuff my parents left behind, it has been overwhelming to sort through it all.  Lots of junk, lots of sentimental items, ALL needed to be dealt with. It was hard.  Emotional.  It made me realize I had to purge NOW.

Don't get me wrong, we've bagged unwanted clothes before and gave away to others.  But this summer, we had the VA truck come three times with 20+ boxes each time left for pickup.  But this time, everything that we hadn't touched or felt hasn't touched us, (Yes, we referred to it Marie Kondo style, "Bring us joy!") was put out.  That included almost brand new bikes, TONS of Lenox china, silver candle holders (a lot of them), perfectly kept games, RAZOR Scooters, anything with a tag still on it, complete sets of nice dishes, etc.  I bet 35% was brand new stuff never used.  Shame on us.


We had rented a dumpster about ten years ago but you'd never know it.  We are not hoarders.  Honest.  We just accumulated way too much stuff.  Things we bought, were given, emotionally attached to (like a crib which could never meet today's standards) or, in John's case, won in a contest.  Like the canoe grill.  Really???  (For the record, john has won 5 grills to date!  Two gas.)

So what about the junk? The huge landscaping slabs of slate that were dangerous to have around? My daughters desk from childhood that really wasn't very stable and missing a side?  The 1990 over-the-top computer desk that was still up but not used in 20 years and was an eyesore?   (With old computer tower still in it?)  Broken down and tossed in one of these:


*Electronics brought to recycling

We're still not done.  Our goal is to conquer holiday directions and we are confident we can get rid of at least 35% which hasn't been used, broken, or just doesn't bring us joy.

Oh, one last thing.  When purging, you do find some treasures that may not be worth anything but make your heart swell.  I will keep those to myself but they involve my parents as well as my own family treasures that resurfaced and made my heart burst.  But here is one to share that is neat from my parents' house.  There was only a handful of stuff left on the dining room table to look through...again.  "If no one wants anything, it will go in the dumpster.)  What was left was really random, meaningless things.  Including a postcard type picture that I never bothered to pick up.  As my brother left the house, he picked it up and got a surprise.

1 comment:

  1. What a fun post! My husband and I recently cut up and disposed of a couch! We've been doing some purging as well. Those clowns were scary but VERY well done. :)
    Jan
    Laughter and Consistency

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