Is it just me?
Unbeknownst to them, my mother and ex-mother-in-law taught me a valuable lesson. Don’t wait until you are passed seventy years old to sort through your stuff.
I decided a few years ago with a big assist from my “less is more” husband to start purging, sorting, and organizing the accumulation of some twenty years.
Mostly I have done pretty well getting rid of the old clothes, college textbooks, baby things, and so on. I have ebayed, goodwilled, salvation armied, craiglisted, book recycled, amvetted, and spca rummage saled.
What I have difficulty doing is just plain throwing something that might possibly be useful in the trash. Oh, I can toss away things that are obviously broken. But, a piece of clothing with one tiny spot on it or old tupperware containers or stuffed animals that just need a little TLC I can’t seem to throw away without guilt.
I am in awe of folks that can just go through their stuff and garbage it all. Wham bam – the extraneous stuff is gone and the drawer or closet or dresser is streamlined. Alas, I am not one of those folks. Not do I expect I will become one at this stage in the game. I am too brainwashed by the mantra of reuse and recycle.
So I wash and mend and clean and photograph and list and write up ads. All these things make the process of clearing out pretty darn slow at times. But I keep chipping away at it. And when I get a closet organized or a kitchen shelf cleared out I feel pretty good about the accomplishment.
And when I need some extra encouragement, I open up one of the many organizing books I have accumulated – oops!
Sandra