April 08, 2010

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….

3 comments:

  1. Before I was done with the first sentence, Grandma Alman popped into my head! Why oh why did your mom make you put the pencils back?

    I always knew that if I needed something, the first thing I'd do was ask Grandma Alman! Ninety percent of the time, she had what I needed. I found some wonderful treasures at her house--especially writing books. One I have is priceless to me. It was printed in 1917. It's priceless because it's still in print. I ordered one from Amazon and sent to your cousin Stacy. (Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases)

    Enjoy your writing! Keep it up........and keep the closets cleaned out!
    Love, Aunt Pam

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this girl :-) great job - we need to clean out our closets too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. At the beginning of your post, I was thinking about Grandma too! I remember once she had even saved a mouse's skeleton that she found in the basement and put it in an ashtray in the living room because it was interesting. Why would she have an ashtray anyway? I purged my closet a few months ago too. - I gave away so many clothes I had been "waiting" to be the right size for again. When I finally had gotten down to my "pre-pregnant with the first child weight" after four years, the pants that I put on fit perfectly but reached my arm-pits. I guess that was the style. Yikes! Talk about Mom jeans! So I promptly went through all my clothes and bought some new ones that actually fit and were, gasp!, in style (I hope!) Kudos to you for doing something really hard - getting rid of stuff. I think it must be in our genes. :-)

    ReplyDelete