“Honey where is that prepaid phone we used to have?” my husband asked yesterday.
I knew that the particular phone was long gone. It was mine, I had never used it, and I checked with my husband “just in case” before I got rid of it months ago. Nevertheless, he suddenly decided that he needed it, so I was in a little bit of trouble.
The problem is that I get into these de-cluttering moods where I just have to toss something. Usually it is paperwork or magazines (we get a number of them free), but many times it is household things. While clothes do sometimes get tossed, we don’t buy a lot of clothing, so we wear everything until it falls off of our bodies at which point it becomes cleaning rags until it disintegrates.
The other day I put a wedding candle into the donation box. No, it wasn’t “the” wedding candle that my husband and I lit at our wedding, but one that was given to us that day as a gift. Still, many might see me as unsentimental for parting with it. It isn’t true.
As you may have heard, we’ve been working on finishing the basement. This means that there are boxes of things around the house without real places for them to go. Boy does this raise up my stress level. Even though there will be places for these items to go once we finish our renovation, just the sight of the stuff so disorganized makes me want to simplify it even more.
I think it is getting to my husband, too, actually. He challenged me to cut down on the number of toys that are currently in the living room slash playroom. The toys will have a new home in the basement, a bigger space, but it will be shared with other functions.
So, after consulting with the kids, a box of preschool toys so large that I couldn’t lift it up the driveway, found its way over to the church nursery. This is nothing new actually, the nursery looks mostly like our living room did a few years ago, since we’ve been donating to it for a while.
Despite feeling triumphant that we were able to let more things go, I have to tell you that I still feel little pangs of regret. Those toys represented my kids baby and toddler hood, mostly, the days spent on the floor playing as the sun streamed in and stray Cherrios found their way into Little People vehicles as passengers. There were certain toys that I really didn’t want to let go because it made it feel as though I was letting that precious time go as well.
But how much better is it that they are used to form new memories with other children? At least I try to remind myself of that as I look around for my next de cluttering project.
Related Articles: