Rear View Mirror - Purge

3-16-13

Staging area in the basement

Tom = "Where was all this stuff?"
Me ="Around the house."
Tom - "But WHERE?  How is it possible that ALL this stuff fit somewhere in our house?!"

Donations going to Dress For Success - good cause

We are purging BIG time.  Major, major, major.  The entire basement area has become a staging area:  some for garage sale, some for Dress for Success donation, general donation, and yet to be determined.  It looks like a flea market -UGH!

Business clothes going to Dress For Success

The really scary thing is this isn't the first purge.  I did a BIG purge last year - filling the Murano to the roof - the entire car except where I sit to drive.  We have also given away quite a bit to friends and family....Our policy since  early fall 2012 - no one leaves our house without taking something home with them.  Most friends are completely avoiding us at this point because of our new policy.

Special load of K-State items going to our Wildcat friends

While previous purges have left me feeling terrific (and I sure this one will once it's over), at first I felt a bit overwhelmed - so much to sort through, tabulate, tag, etc...then I felt depressed and sick.....So much stuff and why?  YUCK!  And remember, we have a very small house - less than 1500 sq ft.  Imagine if we had an average size house.  Eeek.
We did discuss at dinner the fact that most of the stuff has been used.  We found very few items that had not been used at all.  Some of this stuff had not been used in a while - like camping gear but it was still very heavily used in the past and we hung onto it in case we decided to go camping again.
But no more!  As Steely Dan says "we're going out of business, everything must go."

How can 2 people have SO many t-shirts!

4-17-13 Update
Garage sale stuff is gone.  Whew!  We continue to purge stuff like crazy.  To date we have missed nothing.  Let me say that again.....NOTHING.  It's just stuff.  I did pull two scarves out of the donation pile a few weeks ago but that was only because of a cold snap and I wanted to wear them again for business.  Both have since been donated.  I also pulled out one metal mixing bowl w/handle to take on s/v Honey Ryder but other than that, we have not missed a thing.  We are storing a few items like photo albums and such but not much.

Closet used to be stuffed with business clothes