Thursday, October 4, 2007

Getting rid of stuff...

I will start with a correction: I think I miswrote the title of the audio book I am listening to, the correct title is It's Only too Late if You Don't Start Now; How to create your second life after 40 by Barbara Sher. Anyway, I have been listening to it and it has helped me in my thinking. I am actually starting to relisten to it, for the things I may have missed. So if you haven't read or heard it, I suggest the audio version. I got it at the local library and I put it in my car, so when I am driving I can listen to it.

I have been thinking about things lately. I have been reevaluating my life and the way I live. I have alway been a pack rat of sorts, not a to the extent of needing a psychatric help or anything. But, I do tend to keep things well beyond their use; (just in case you know, someday I might need it or there may be a use for it that I can't think of right at the moment. And boy would I hate to get down the road a few years and realize I really could use it now, and then have to go buy a new one...) Sound familiar to anyone? Well, anyway, I have been thinking seriously about downsizing and getting rid of a lot of things that are stored up somewhere, or that we aren't using. But the task seems monumental and I just can't seem to get started on it. And when I do, then I run into the problem of what to do with it? I can't throw perfectly good things away... ( when there are so many poor, hungry people in another country that could use it...) I just can't seem to get that which was engrained into my head in childhood out. So with that in mind, I have given a lot of things through the years to Goodwill or to someone I know who could use whatever it happen to be that I was getting rid of at the moment. But I also have my mom on the other side, saying: "You shouldn't throw away any of the kids things, those are their memories, and they might want to show them to their kids." This coming from a woman who never threw away anything of mine or my brothers. If something was broken, she couldn't just throw it in the trash, she had to burn it. She never gave anything of ours away, because she felt like it was giving part of us away. Well, I am not that bad. I do throw broken things away and I do give things away. But that guilt is hard to get past. But my rationalization for that is...by the time the kids get older and have kids of their own, they won't want this stuff they have now, the kids will have so much new stuff, they couldn't care less about this from my kids childhood. With a few exceptions, like for instance, special stuffed animals or dolls, or small trinkets that meant something special to them. But my kids have had so much stuff through their lives that it would require a whole house just to tore all of their things. Which brings me to a point... We have a double garage; can we park in it? NO! Why can we not park in it? To much stuff... We have a 12x24 foot out building behind my parents house in Louisiana full of what...MORE STUFF! But if that isn't enough, we pay $50 a month on a storage facility here in Arkansas for what??? Yet more stuff!! Some of this stuff, hasn't seen daylight in years. Some I packed away when we moved to Kentucky in 2000, and it is still packed away, only we are moving it around with us with every move, and paying good money to store it. We have far exceeded the value of the stuff in storage fees through the years. WHY you ask? For the life of me I can't tell you. This is one thing that I have been contemplating lately. Why do we have so much stuff? Why would we need so much stuff? Like I said, it is just the idea of having to rid ourselves of it that is the hard part. It isn't parting with it, but just going through it all and deciding what goes and what stays, that is the real problem. To compound that, well, there are these little thing called SPIDERS!!! I hate them. And we have brown recluces and black widows here. And I have seen them in the storage shed that we rent. (Just in case you don't know about them, I have included a link to each, enjoy!) So I am deathly afraid of them, and I don't know just how to go about cleaning the shed out without encounting one. Did I mention that I am VERY afraid of spiders? Anyway, so those obsticles have kept me from doing anything about the junk. BUT, the time has come...

... the Walrus said,"To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,"Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!" ..........................

Sorry, I got a little side tracked there...

As I was saying, the time is here to make some changes...and getting rid of the stuff is a first step. So I have called a consignment shop and I will be taking clothes, clothes and more clothes that we no longer need, or can't wear; mostly the latter, to get rid of. I am planning a yard sale soon to rid myself of more stuff, and then what doesn't sale will be taken to goodwill. Then when I get the garage cleaned out, Andrew's job is to go to the storage shed, since I am a wee bit afraid of spiders, and bring the stuff back here a few boxes at a time, and I will go through them and do the yard sale/goodwill thing again. And what noone would want, or for whatever reason isn't usable, will be thrown into the trash, (sorry Mom!) without guilt! Because once I am freed from the stuff in my life, then I will be lighter and happier, Right?
"Of course you will dear."
So these things have been on my mind and one day I happened upon a podcast. While I am working at the PO, I listen to my ipod and one of the podcast that I like to listen to is
The Story from American Public Media. If you haven't heard it before I put a link to it, you should go visit the site. Anyway, there was one called, My 500 things (follow the link to listen), and it really got me inspired and interested. The guy took inventory of his things and decided, like me, it was time to downsize. So he wants to get down to 500 things that he owns. It was really inspiring and eye opening for me maybe that is just me, but I recommend everyone listening to his story.
So now that I am working on getting rid of this junk in my life, I am also looking around at other things in my life that need to go...and a really big one is about 40 pounds. Literally, I need to get rid of about 40 pounds. So I am working on that issue. Maybe my next blog entry will be about that. Or maybe just about some radom thing that is going on that day. I am still planning to post the photo's of the puppies and of Noah's birthday. I am getting around to it.

Fall is on the way, I would love to take a trip up east and see the wonderful fall colors, but since I can't I suppose these will have to do...










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