Renee and I spent the weekend starting what we’ve been talking about since the fall — getting rid of stuff.
This weekend we cleaned out the storage above the garage. It felt so great to do this, we rallied and emptied out a closet and got rid of other stuff in the house.
I can’t even describe, how great this feels, to get rid of stuff. How cool it is to get to be free of attachment.
I didn’t take a picture of the storage before we started. But it was so full, most of the time we couldn’t find anything. It was getting hard to walk around. It was just piles of stuff. Stuff we thought we wanted.
Here’s what the storage looks like now
The stuff where the lamps are is from my Mother’s house. So now, I have a another memorial for her. Now I can go up here and read, talk to her in private. I organized it all neatly, she’d be proud. I’m sure she’s happy with the corner I setup for her.
Here’s the pile that’s going to the dump. It’s so big we’ll either need a roll off or we’ll have to hire someone to come take it all away. We’re cool with that.
Here’s the chemicals we got rid of
Now, we only have one cleaner we use. It’s good for planet, good for us. Here it is
I took two van loads to the Thrifty. It was all good stuff. I think I counted 8 boxes of Chase’s and Justin’s clothes when they were younger. Someone is going to score and we’re really happy about that
Tonight I was cruising Netflix, looking for something to watch. It was pure serendipity, that I found this movie
Watch this movie. I was this movie — buying stuff to feel better. I’m not completely over it, I still buy way too many concert t-shirts. But I’m getting better.
We’re conditioned to think we need more. I know Renee and I don’t believe it. We know better. Our house, our stuff, that doesn’t make us happy. What makes us happy is how we live — when no one is watching.
We believe it’s true that less is more.
be free
Yep.
Renee and I were talking. While we don’t want clutter, keeping things is important. For example Renee has letters, so do I. Remember them? Letters are important for so many reasons. To remind us of a certain time, or the period in history when letters were how we communicated.
Letters also remind us of cursive. My Mom wrote notes to me in cursive, up till her death. I’m going to teach myself to write cursive again.
My posters from concerts are important to me, too.
And then if you have kids, well, we save some stuff from their childhood. My Mom saved some cool stuff for me.
And keeping stuff to pass down is a really good thing. I think it can teach us the value of history.
So yeah. It’s great to get rid of stuff and be lighter. It’s great to know our stuff doesn’t define us. But it’s also great to look around and see things that have meaning.