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| Cute new lip gloss, girls! Use it or it’ll be gone in 2013’s purge! |
The Purge of 2012 has begun.
This is when we ask ourselves why we’re holding on to non-working cell phones, high heels fitting no one, and make-up long past its prime. And that was just in the playroom. I haven’t even tackled my closet yet.
Yesterday the playroom was enough. Dozens of torn dress-up dresses, toddler toys passed down from child to child, and coverless books are now at Goodwill, waiting for some other sucker to come and get them.
On day’s like yesterday, I marvel that each of us came into this world with nothing, not one stitch of clothing and not one iPod. But we’ve managed to fill all 4,500 square feet with stuff. Our house is bulging with things we use everyday (the dozens of blankets our kids require to sleep and, inexplicably, the Happy Meal toys they love) and all the stuff we never use (ribbon, which I have enough to wallpaper the house in and a graveyard of technology we cannot seem to purge).
After a long day of throwing out, the line between the usable and unusable has begun to blur. I’m holding on to “artwork” Nate made by scribbling red crayon on yellow construction paper. In my exhausted state, I’m purging unread books I know my kids will love one day (can someone confirm they’ll all devour Charlotte’s Web in the near future? Actually, don’t answer that. I just sent it to Goodwill.).
Will my future self hate my current self for throwing out all my old teaching materials? Or will my future self hate my current self for holding on to fashion only fitting for a year beginning with 19?
So, this is where I need your help, my highly organized friends.
Readers, young and old, help me unblur the line between what should stay and what should go. Please, won’t you share your own purging philosophies?
Here are my concerns:
1. Do you follow that “If I didn’t wear it this year, it goes” rule for your closet? How does that work for you? Do you ever miss the college sweatshirts you didn’t keep?
2. What do you do with old technology? Donate it? Repurpose it? Can you really repurpose a laptop with a disk drive? Or a CD player with detachable speakers? What if it still works?
3. Do you save books you’ve read and liked? It’s almost 2013. Aren’t we supposed to be reading everything on computer screens now?
4. How many toys do you save for your (future) grandkids? I really struggle here. Will kids of the next generation scoff at wooden trains? Or embrace them for their non-electronic simplicity?
5. Old papers, from high school notes to kids’ artwork to past bank statements. How much do you save? Do you ever wish you’d saved something that you didn’t? Tell me now because I’m about to purge that yellow construction paper “artwork” of Nate’s.
Email me (christina(at)christinasbooks(dot)com or help all the stuff-laden readers by leaving your answers in the comments.
Thank you. You’ve closed 2012 out with the good deed of helping me decide what should stay and what should go. My heart (and house) now have a special place for you.
So funny. We are completely writing in the same vein as I purged that 1999 sweater yesterday. You go girl. Save a few timeless toys (yes, the trains) and get rid of the rest of it.
One box of “stuff to save forever” for each kid. Everything else gets tossed! Every time you buy a new piece of clothing, put something into the Goodwill donation box.
I have seriously considered offering my de-cluttering services to people. I love to organize and de-clutter, donate, pass on, or repurpose stuff. Then I start to panic in the logistics–what if someone actually wanted me to come help them do this job. Would I get overwhelmed half way through and end up on their couch?? Or snuggled up in there bed demanding a heating pad for my legs?!!