A few weeks ago I embarked on a quest to organize my home. I don't know how it happens, but the more space you have the more space you need. We moved into our home almost five years ago, yet I still had boxes that I had never opened or unpacked. After reading a great
blog post, I decided to do my own 40 bag in 40 day purge. I committed to going through my closets, garage, office, and everywhere else. At first it was difficult.
I began in my daughter's room. I have been very good about pulling clothes that no longer fit, but had been storing them in large plastic tubs for the day I was going to sell them on eBay or Craigslist. I quickly filled three large bags and moved them to my bedroom, not knowing what to do with them. The next day I attacked my linen closet and both upstairs vanities. It was very easy to part with the old cosmetics, expired medication and sunscreen and dingy sheets and towels. I feel a huge sense of satisfaction when I carried the bags out to the trash (except for the old towels that are now in my craft bin for a great project I will unveil on this blog soon.)
With the bags from the first day still sitting in my bedroom, I felt a little defeated and decided to take a few days off (after all I was five bags for two days). When I started back up, I decided to conquer the evil storage room on our lower level. We are lucky to have a 10 x 6 room that I have managed to cram full of tubs. I spent a good part of two days in this room (and I am still not finished). This room is where we store our holiday decorations, tubs of clothes we hope to fit into again someday, baby clothes, old paperwork from my restaurant I sold in '98 and anything else I don't know what to do with.
I had two tubs of maternity clothes alone in there. What? My daughter is 5 1/2! Because she was born 12 wks early, I had so many maternity pieces that still had the tags on. I told myself for five years that I was going to sell them on eBay, but some how, it never happened. Sitting on the family room floor, going through the bins I realized that getting rid of those clothes was admitting how terrible my two pregnancies were and that I could never have another baby. I have known this for years, but realize now that I wasn't truly ready to let go. Once I get over the emotional hump of parting with these and they were put into bags, I timidly moved on to the tubs with the preemie clothes. This was much more difficult for me than dealing with the maternity clothes. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the pain of losing my first daughter when she was three days old, 17 years ago, after arriving 16 wks early. At the same time, I was clutching the tiny outfits so thankful for my second daughter and remembering how blessed I felt when she was finally big enough to leave the hospital in one of beautiful little pieces. I did it! I got through the teeny tiny clothes! And after a very good cry, decided to keep one little outfit and many, many memories. The one outfit is only so my daughter can see someday what a 4 lb baby wore home from the hospital. I loaded six bags of baby clothes, maternity clothes, and the three bags from my first night of purging into my van and headed immediately to Salvation Army. It took me five years, but I now have a heart full of memories and a third of my storage room empty!
I felt so empowered the next day when I set out to fill my bag that I decided to tackle the two tubs of paperwork from my restaurant that I sold in '98. After 12 years, did I really need to keep this? After searching several websites, including www.irs.gov, I pulled out my little shredder and began shredding. Who would have thought that shredding old invoices, canceled checks (back when the banks returned them) and payroll sheets would be so fun! It was fun to think about old employees, crazy customers, sponsored events, as I fed page after page into the shredder, but it was more fun to see two tubs of useless things shredded into confetti.
After letting go of all the mental baggage, the last week and a half of purging has been easy. No emotions tied to stuff in the garage, food in the pantry or dishes in the kitchen.
Today is day 23 of my 40 day purge and I am not nearly done organizing my home and life. While I accept that I will never truly be done, I am now focused enough to never stop trying.
If you want to tackle those boxes, files, bags and kitchen drawers full of old statements, receipts, invoices, etc. but fear potential identity theft if you were to toss in the trash, this weekend you will have your chance to clean house. Check out
Chicago Spring Cleaning: Free Shredding and Recycling Day – March 13.
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