The Purge

No, I'm not talking about that movie where everyone runs around killing each other.  I'm talking about "stuff".  For awhile now, my husband Bill and I decided we have way too much of it. We've heard of the "Minimalist" movement, and hey, if that works for you, awesome.  Maybe we'll eventually get there, but I think I'm just too sentimental. I believe in family heirlooms: being able to pass treasures down the generations is amazing to me. When you can hold history in your hand, it just means more. That said, I did realize that there was a whole lot of "stuff" cluttering up our home that was far from being something I'd consider valuable. Our garage was overflowing with things we hadn't used, or for that matter, even looked at, for years. We called the garage the Black Hole because things went in and never came out. It was a mystery. 
The funny thing is that I could always justify keeping something by saying I was going to use it again someday, or I'm sure I can figure out something to do with it. Before I knew it, there were so many of these "things" that even if I did have an opportunity or reason to use them, would I be able to find them? Probably not. I'd have to go out and buy something new. So what's the point? Meanwhile, maybe someone else can use it.
Now, making a decision to down-size is easy, but just as easy is procrastinating actually doing it.  There are always a million other things that are more important, and need to be finished before we could start...well, sort of. Bill and I knew that we would have to tackle this venture in stages. So...
Step 1: The Purge
We started slowly. We looked around inside the house for items we wouldn't really miss, the kind of things we didn't even have to think about: boxes for phones we didn't own anymore. clothes we hadn't worn for a year or two, gift bags I had saved from birthdays, or baby showers. We inventoried the decent-to-good stuff and photographed it so we could drop it off at a neighborhood thrift store. I believe it's important to keep good records if you want to get the tax deduction. The rest, we recycled if possible to keep the trash output to a minimum. At this point we started seeing at least a little progress. Cupboards were less packed, Closets were easier to close. 

Now as we face the Black Hole, suddenly Mount Everest seems less daunting. There are some hard decisions to come. Wish me luck.