Comments on: When You Can’t Let Go

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By: charmaine

charmaine — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:18:21 +0000

I really enjoyed reading these responses. We have recently moved into a bigger house but the bedrooms are bigger and the living areas all one space…..and i LOVE it!!!!
There is absolutely nowhere to store anything and over twelve months later hubby and i are still purging stuff from the old place. (we brought a property alongside our original one and now instead of having stuff at both places it is all in one spot and we are slowly purging through it all.

We usually have a small skip each month filled with wood, steel, junk and house rubbish. Today went out old bike parts and old carpet.

With the kids they only have a small built in wardrobe each, and i am always going thru their clothes. I love the feeling of puttin stuff into goodwill or sharing old videos and dvds to the library, craft stuff to the school.

I msold my daughters pushbike and she still hasnt realised it has gone…and that was a couple months ago LOL

By: I’m an Organizing Junkie» I’m An Organizing Junkie

I’m an Organizing Junkie» I’m An Organizing Junkie — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:02:16 +0000

[...] of Till Debt Do Us Part. Recently I thought two of her posts were fitting to link from here. When You Can’t Let Go talks about how hard it is to let go of our stuff and the three questions you can ask yourself to [...]

By: Bud

Bud — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:16:24 +0000

Hello Everyone,
I’ve lived in our first home for two years now and since we’ve moved from our rental… I go though our stuff that we’ve hadn’t use for six months to a year.. My Mom notice that I keep moving things on that I haven’t use for yrs or months and I don’t need in my new home… It’s seems to be always a few boxes or bags of stuff every few months.. I notice I had a lot of stuff when I moved out of my small bedroom from my parents house and over filled a car with my stuff which doesn’t include no bed, no dresser.. Just clothes, junk (got rid alot of it) and crafts that I’m still into…
We now have just a normal size closet in the master bedroom and I don’t buy any new clothing unless something is worn out (don’t like it anymore) to replace it.. With our house warming party I had with my family I made a big thing that we have a small closet and using one dresser between the two of us which they didn’t believe me that I would stick to it… (We’ve stuck to it) But we have a spare bedroom with an empty dresser and closet for when we have guests over… My rule in the home is: DON’T HAVE A PLACE FOR IT MOVE IT ON! HAVEN’T USE IT IN SIX MONTHS! Give it away… That has kept my home more clutter free
For those who own china dishes! My parents own a big set that the family use for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and sometimes birthday though out the year. Now I have my own set that I received which I use a few times a yr for the same occasions I’m glad I have them since I’m caring on a family tradition which makes the celebration more special and memorable….

By: erin

erin — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:07:17 +0000

Great timing! We had a community garage sale on Saturday, and after an hour I was ready to be done. So I put a large free sign in front of all the small stuff. My neighbours thought I made a ton of money since everyone kept stopping, and taking. Additionally people then took time to look at the bigger items and buy them! Yeah! Doing daycare I had accumulated a tonne of stuff, most of it given to me. Life is about paying it forward…so 2 double strollers offered on Freecycle and a double jogger offered to a friend. I don’t need them at the moment, so what is the point of storing them? I find that clutter and “stuff” is stressful.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:57:17 +0000

Did some spring cleaning of my closet. 2 big garbage bags full of clothes and shoes. I now have 3 empty rubbermaid boxes. So going to get my 72hr emergency prepareness kit together. It’s ER Prepareness week this week May 3-9th.

By: spope

spope — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:21:04 +0000

I have come to believe that if something is being left in a box, or closet and hasn’t seen the light of day, then you are doing that item/memory an injustice. If you truly wanted to respect your “stuff” it would be out and visible, showing it the respect it deserves. That makes it easy for me to let go of “stuff” that are in boxes, gathering dust.

I have always been able to let go of things, and rarely do I ever regret doing so.

By: sandrabelle

sandrabelle — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:08:24 +0000

Our church sends over new and gently worn clothes to missionaries in Africa.

2 years ago, one of our church members put in her wedding dress and off it went. We got a wonderful letter back from the missionary stating that over 6 women had used the dress in their wedding days and were absolutely thrilled to have a white dress.

What a wonderful way to reuse something that hangs in a closet.

By: sandrabelle

sandrabelle — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:59:18 +0000

I am a purger. An organized space is a relaxing space……ahh….

I sometimes in the past got rid of things and then wondered if I acted too quick. Now when I do go on a purging spree I have 4 piles, keep, give away, throw out and death row. If I have something that I can’t quite decide on it goes to death row for 6 months. If I don’t use it in 6 months, I probably never will, so I get rid of it. I keep death row stuff all together and use it as a starting point for the next purge.

I have a theory that when I purge I remember the long forgotten item and then inadvertently think of a use for it a week later. If I never purged, I wouldn’t have thought about it or ever needed it. With death row, I have it to use and miss the second guessing of what I threw out and needed.

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:26:43 +0000

When my husband and I hit the 20 year marriage mark (now heading for 22), I had a yard sale and was able to sell off a lot of the what I called the “outer level junk”. This is the junk hiding the “inner level junk”. Last year I could get to the “inner level junk” and had another sale. At the end of this month I’m participating in a church yard sale and able to finally bring my regular junk. What was an interesting task to go through was reviewing many wedding gifts we had received in 1987 but never used but didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by letting them go. We decided on one rule of thumb for many of them… we had a number of gifts from couples who were no longer together, had remarried and a few started second families. We figured they wouldn’t even remember what they gave us and if we weren’t using it, it was time to let it go.

By: sunflowermel

sunflowermel — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:21:23 +0000

The hardest things for me to purge are things that my Mother has given me. I lost her in my early 20s and my way of ‘keeping her with me’ was to keep EVERYTHING associated with her from the letters and cards she sent me to the tacky (mom, don’t strike me down) holiday themed items she would send me (ceramic easter basket anyone?). A few years ago I challanged my fiancee to purge his belongings when we were preparing to move. As he was donating his records and books, he asked me if I was planning to do any purging of my own. I was stunned, he couldn’t be asking for me to get rid of my memories of my mother. I was stunned. Then as I was thinking horrible, nasty thoughts about him, it hit me, It wasn’t my memories I was getting rid of, I would always have those but just the physical items associated with them. My first purging session was difficult, like losing her again (memories can do that to a person) but once it was done, I felt, Nothing and that was great. No guilt and no grief.
Once I had a taste of that, there was no stopping me. I purge regularly now, clothing, kitchen items, food to foodbanks, books, etc. I still struggle with associating memories with items but what can I say, I am a work in progress!!!!

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:22:05 +0000

Wow, good post and lots of thought processes here. I am a third (at least) generation hoarder. I do a lot of crafts, and recycle a lot of things, including old jeans, fur coats, etc. Therefore, if anyone who knows me has anything they are purging, I get the call – can I use _____? It took me a while, but I am finally saying, “No, I have 43 fur coats waiting their turn to be made into teddy bears”! My grandmother was a ‘recycler’ as well, making quilts out of everything and anything. She passed away 31 years ago, and my aunt recently gave me several boxes of pre-cut recycled clothes, ready for sewing – that are at least 50+ years old!!! I did manage to find some rickrack from the 30’s in grandma’s box that went on Raggedy Ann’s apron, but I bit the bullet, and threw those boxes out (after storing them for a few years). I would love to be able to pack up and move in a day or less, but on the other hand, I was thrilled when my mom re-gifted me with a home made Mother’s Day card I had made as a child – using fabrics to make a female body (my fashion designing started young), and my very first pay stub! I remember how rich I felt to be making $1.94/hour!!! Where does one draw the line? In 1994 my former husband decided we should move from Regina to Edmonton. I had just had knee surgery, and he was already in Edmonton working, so a mover was hired. The truck wasn’t big enough, they had to get another trailer to attach!! Unloading in Edmonton, I got to sit on a chair and be the ‘recorder’, verifying boxes and where they went. We had almost 500 boxes of ’stuff’ and over half of that was my craft paraphernalia!! That was a wake up call for me, especially considering the eventual move back to Saskatchewan, (my parents came, we had two vans, and a half ton truck with topper, and Dad and I had to go rent a U-Haul to add to the truck) (and I had sold most of my big furniture to make the move easier – HA!) and how many of those boxes haven’t hardly been opened yet. I am in the process of moving now, and seriously deciding if I am ever going to recycle this or that. A huge garage sale is in my summer plans, and I am going to focus on only keeping craft supplies for what I intend to produce in the next little while. I too have all my college books, for God knows what reason, because I am not even working in my ‘field’, and those books are also outdated. The one thing I have trouble getting rid of is pictures of my sons. You know, the WalMart packages, where you get a gazillion different size pics, and can’t give them all away? Reading another post, though, from the other day got me thinking. One poster commented on the fire down east, where they were evacuated. She grabbed important papers, etc., and away they went. When your life is put in a nutshell like that, it makes you realize what is really important, and what should be so easy to purge. BUT, where do they come up with all those old props for movies, etc? Somebody had to have stored that stuff somewhere……

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:14:56 +0000

Just don’t forget to actually use that china set. My mom read Rohinton Mistry’s _Family Matters_ and ever since has been using her china on a daily basis in order to enjoy it as much as she can.

Live in the moment and use (or lose) your crap… errr, stuff!