Decluttering

When we moved into this house (our rental), a year ago, I thought we'd done a nice job cleaning out. Not PERFECT, but I really thought the "junk" was limited.

I was wrong.

The evidence is in the car loads of stuff we've already transferred to the new house ...

And haven't missed.

I'm talking LOTS of stuff.

Granted, a good chunk of it is baby stuff. As we're expecting a baby, it doesn't make sense to get rid of this stuff NOW. Though, this will be the last baby (you hear that?) ... so once this baby is done with "baby stuff," then it's time for the baby stuff to go.

I took all my clothes over there that fall into winter/doesn't fit/didn't fit/likelihood of wearing this again is close to zero ... I took 3/4 of my clothes. Aside from a few sweaters and long-sleeve shirts (which is probably less than 10 items total) THIS IS STUFF I DO NOT WEAR AND WILL NOT WEAR. Seriously? And I think I have a lot less clothes than most women to begin with. I'm disgusted.

I also have lots of serving dishes THAT I KEEP IN THE BOXES SO THEY DON'T BREAK. This are items that are no longer made. I've justified this by, they are irreplaceable. So, of course, this means store them in their original packaging and NEVER USE THEM. This is silly. There's a decent chance I could find the item on eBay if something happens and I HAD to replace it. There's also a total chance that I can find something else I love to replace it with. Really, physical things are - ultimately - temporary.

I have things I keep because they were gifts and/or were expensive. This is not a long list of things, but they exist. I tell myself the purpose of a gift is for the recipient to enjoy it - if he or she is no longer enjoying it, then it's not a gift anymore. I wouldn't want someone keeping a gift from me that was burdening them ... but it's hard to make sense of this when you know the giver may not interpret your giving away/selling of the "gift" that way. It doesn't mean I never enjoyed it, it just means it's time to move on. The space and/or money is a more valuable gift at this time.

The toys. Good grief. I genuinely think the boys get to a point where they've dumped out and mixed up so much stuff that they don't even see ANY of it - let alone play with it. We've decided NOT to give them a play room in this next house. Nine times out of 10, they drag their preferred toys into the adult areas of the house anyway! So, to pull this off, I think half the toys are going to have to go. Honestly, they don't even play with half of them ... so it should matter. I told Bean we were selling the train table.

"But I love the train table."
"You don't even play with the trains."
"Because you put them away." (True.)
"OK, but you did have the twisty track out and where did you play with that?"
"On the floor, because the train table had a bunch of junk on it."

Exactly. You can play with your train sets on the floor JUST FINE. The train table is large and has been used as a junk holder for a full year. It's going.

The book situation is also a little grotesque, but it's an area I'm not fretting about. My only goal is to avoiding buying books (for myself). I have plenty of unread books and access to a library. Now, I have YEARS of back issues of writing magazines. I consider them to be a contribution to my writing life. I've never looked at a back issue. Ever. Ever. Not a single time. And there's gotta be five years of back issues. I'm seriously considering putting them in the garage sale or up on Freecycle. There are people who could really enjoying pouring over this magazines (once upon a time, I certainly would have), but that's a passed moment for me. Now, they only take up valuable shelf space.

Also, papers from high school and college and my jobs ... I think I hang on to them because they remind me that I did something before pouring sippy cups and wiping noses and butts. LOOK, I DID SOMETHING! Not that mothering is nothing, but it's certainly not something you get credit for or a paycheck for and it does nothing to build your resume. It's not something American culture values (which, I think, explains away a lot of our poverty and crime rates). I don't think it all needs thrown in the recycling bin, but it needs to be brought down to a single box ... not FIVE OR SIX boxes that are so heavy I can't even lift them.