Urge to Purge

I tend to be very sentimental about things.  I have a very poor memory in general but when it come to my things  I can remember where each item came from, where I was living at the time, what point of life I was in.  


The same holds true about my children's things.  I remember if something was given as a shower gift, birthday gift, or Christmas gift.  I can remember who gave it to them.


And, this ability to remember has made it very difficult to let go of things.  Maybe I've been afraid that letting go of the things will mean letting go of the memory.  I've worried about offending the people who gave it as a gift.


Other things that have made it difficult to purge my house of all the stuff it's accumulated is the worry that if I get rid of something, I might need it or wish I had it someday.  I've also been stuck with stuff because I think that I should really try putting it all together for a yard sale..or I should try selling it on ebay or craigslist.  And, then it continues to sit in boxes or closets, or in whatever portion of our house designated as a 'waiting' area...and it waits and waits for that magical moment when I have enough time to organize it and DO something with it.


Well, lately I've been getting tired...really, really tired of how stuff has been ordering my life instead of the other way around.  And, something has begun to break through.  That something is the urge to purge!




While I do still have a few boxes of items set aside for that 'someday' yard sale, more often than not I've been purging...


Clothes that don't get worn or are stained or ripped?   In a bag to be dropped off at a clothing drop (some places will take ripped/stained clothes & then sell them to companies that recycle clothing)


Broken toys?  Toss 'em.


Books & magazines I'm done reading?  Donate them to the library for their annual book sale.


Things I just don't use anymore?  Drop them off at a reuzit store or....


One of my favorite things to do is to set them in front of our house marked 'FREE'.  It saves me the trip to the drop-off and it's kind of fun to watch and see who will stop to pick them up. Here are some items I had out front yesterday.

Some of you might wonder why I wouldn't sell the baby items at a yard sale.  Honestly they have been sitting in our one room in a pile of yard sale hopefuls taking up space.  And, I was just tired of it, ready to be rid of them.  I figured, is it really worth my time & effort to store this, mark it & try to sell it for the sake a few dollars?  Or, I can put this out and hopefully someone who can really use it, takes it.

As it turned out, two women stopped at the same time to pick up the baby items.  I thought for a minute there was going to be a fight over who got to take them, but I guess they worked it out.

This dry sink was part of the dining room set to our old dining table.  The table & chairs are long since gone, having been well used (read: falling apart).  I held on to the dry sink (a really solid piece) because it was a) holding our board games & puzzles and b) I thought that someday I might paint it.  

I realized that I was probably never going to tackle the painting project & I was just tired of it.  So, out it went.

And, someone eventually took it.  (An Amishman in his buggy stopped first to take a look at it.  While he didn't take it he did let my boys pet his horse.)

The only dilemna getting rid of the dry sink cause was....

where to go with all the games?  

Finally, I also had to share a picture of a really cool yard sale find.  This might seem counter-intuitive to my 'urge to purge'.  But, this is something I just couldn't pass up.

An air hockey table!!!  Something my boys thought would be really cool to have.  AND I got it for $5!!!!

It's currently in the space left behind by the dry sink in our computer room.  This will not be it's final location.  I would like to move it out to our sunroom...which inspires more purging!