Liberating Myself

Ok, so, I'm strange. I'll admit it. I go through these phases where I just feel like getting rid of stuff. I like having things, and I do consider all of the things I have to be nice.

The other thing I notice about myself is that I think of "having" things as opposed to "owning" them. I don't know why I do this, but I think there is a big difference. A good difference, indeed.

This mindset helps me let go of stuff when the time is right. I find that I have an appreciation for what the items did for me and my life, but I have no attachment to them. I am not "emotionally involved" with the material item.

I also realize that when I have too much stuff, I am complicating my life and I am influencing my kids to want more stuff, too. None of us really think about it consciously. It just happens.

I know it's time to purge things when I start asking, "Where did this come from?" or saying "Where am I gonna put this?" and especially when I say, "We need a bigger house.. we're running out of room."

Alarms, bells, whistles, flashing lights .. whatever you want to call them, start going off in my head in those moments.

I am sort of an organizing freak. Kept items that get packed away are all uniformly packaged into matching Rubbermaid containers and clearly labeled on the outside. Then they all get neatly stacked into the basement storage area at our house.

Once that task is done, I look around and I still see a million things that I don't want, don't care about and wish weren't there.

Pause- I know I'm making it sound like I am a hoarder, but that's not true at all. We are a family of four living in an eight hundred square foot house. Itty-bitty living space.

Not to say that our house does not provide sufficient living space. We just have to live within that space and do so comfortably. A place for everything and everything in its place is great, but not when everything doesn't HAVE a place.

What I try to do is pick a day when the hubs can take the boys and get out of the house. I stand in front of our closet. Anything that the hubs or I have not worn in the last 6 months gets thrown into an empty bin. When he gets home, he gets 5 minutes to look through and veto anything (he usually doesn't) and then the lid goes on and straight into the car.

On to the next room. Usually the kids' rooms, but I include the living room, the kitchen, etc. Everything gets looked over room by room. Mostly empty bottles of whatever get pitched or recycled. Decorative things that collect dust and don't do anything for me go bye-bye to someone or someplace else.

It's a liberating feeling to get rid of crap. There is something very zen about cleaning, sorting and organizing. It's almost therapeutic at times.

Anyone else weird like me?