Tuesday, July 06, 2010

The Big Purge

6 years ago I left my 2 bedroom apartment on the third floor of Library Apartments in Springfield and moved to a 3 bedroom house in Ludlow, IL. Then 3 years later with a giant U-haul truck, and many, many carloads (thank you T-Dad), we moved to our 4 bedroom house. Add in 3 kids... and a hoarding mentality...and we've got enough stuff to provide all the basic essentials to several small villages in Rowanda. Sad, really. And I'm not proud of it. But things are going to change.

I've lead myself to believe that if I have less stuff in my house, my house will be easier to clean. So under that premise (and other belief systems like "less is more", materialism sucks, etc.)...I been have whittling away the extra this and that items all throughout my house for the past 8 wks. With much help from friends and family. Because honestly I am going against the inner workings of my mind here. My mind is locked into "SAVE" position due to some post-depression family genetics or stationary ancient tribe connection, or learned behavior from my own parents. So with each "perfectly good, just old and ugly, extra blanket" or "hard to find and clever kitchen utensil" I have to coach myself through it, keeping my eyes on the prize...I crave simplicity. The stuff has got to go. I yearn for empty spaces and bare walls. I want less. I know that my house will not stay Buddhist sparse forever, or even very long. But that is my goal. And the last 4 four days have been The Big Purge.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck!

We just moved and have a storage unit full of stuff. Do we really need the stuff we have been doing without the last couple of months?

The Fearless Freak said...

Good for you! We are packing to move and I have same discussion with EVERY SINGLE THING I pack. Judging by the boxes stacked on every flat surface in my house, I'm losing the battle with stuff, but I keep trying.

@Leighann, I have a "but we "might" need it mentality. I use that box of scrap booking stuff under the stairs less often than once a year but I won't get rid of it because I "might" want it more often than that.

Tracy said...

Great to see you blogging again! Good luck with the big purge. We did a major purge after we moved, and now I do a purge about every 6 months. I get rid of stuff I probably would have used again, but it's worth not having as much stuff to put away!

Lavender Lemonade said...

Progress was made, and is still ongoing. It seems unending. But thank you Leighann, Ms. Freak and Tracy for feeling my pain, and letting me know I'm not alone.

SunnyD said...

How did the clean out go? Do you walk through the house and wonder "Where did my stuff go?"