Free, like a bird.

I am definitely a sucker for a bargain. I also love to buy used things. (I just won a 9 inch portable dvd player on eBay for $23!) My husband calls me a hoarder because I won’t throw anything away. I will give it away to someone who needs it, or sell it, but I will NOT just throw it away. My Great-Grandma Alman was the same way. I remember going to her house when we were little and she would tell us to pick out some “school supplies” from her cabinet. These “supplies” were often 2 inch long chewed up pencils. Excitedly, I would pick out a few favorites (the ones that still had half the eraser on them), but my Mom always made me put them back.

I’m not really a hoarder. I know this because I have seen the show about hoarders and I am definitely not like that. I do have some emotional attachment to certain items, but I am also physically capable of getting rid of things I don’t use.

My cousin Rachel got me hooked on her friend Sara’s blog (both blogs previously mentioned in my shout-out post). I am fascinated by Sara’s blog sometimes. Not because they live out of an RV, but because all of their belongings fit into that RV! She recently wrote a post on her blog called Simplify Saturday. Every Saturday they go through their RV and get rid of things they don’t use. She said, “If you don’t love it, it’s gone. If it doesn’t fit you very well, it’s gone. You will feel free…like a bird.”

I wanted to feel free like bird too! So, a couple of weeks ago, I cleaned out our closets. I’m not talking about getting rid of a couple shirts; I literally cleaned out half of my closet. I had so many clothes that either didn’t fit me anymore, and I was hoping some day they would, or that were so out of style, but I knew I spent a lot of money on so I couldn’t get rid of it. I had clothes and shoes that I’ve owned since high school and college! Dustin has tried to get rid of clothes of his in the past, and I wouldn’t let him because I knew they were nice… well, I let him. We sorted through our dvd collection and took out the ones we hadn’t watched in years (I mean seriously, why did I feel emotionally attached to the Spider Man series?) and put them in the garage for our garage sale. I didn’t realize how cluttered my house was with items that I might someday use. After loading up the garage, I really did feel like a huge weight was lifted off my chest. I really did feel free. I felt like I could breathe again.

It was just a start. Truly getting rid of things, purging, is hard. Especially when you know how much it cost, or if it was a gift and you feel guilty getting rid of it, or if you think you might need it someday. I had two boxes of hangers (baby and adult) in our garage sale and marked them as free. As two woman emptied the box out I started to panic a little and actually thought about stopping them and saying I needed to keep a few. Then, I realized that a 10 pack of hangers usually cost about a dollar. If I truly needed more hangers someday, I could go buy some. OR, I could clean out my closet again….