On Purging (KJ)

KJ — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:00:13 +0000

A lot of people have been really encouraging about our purge. Neither CM nor I want our RV to be cluttered with a bunch of junk. I’ve got to be honest here, this is REALLY HARD. Now that everything is off of the shelves and out of the drawers, our house is a real mess and we are overwhelmed by how much stuff we have! Now we’re trying to figure out what to do with it all. It’s one thing to sell high dollar items to others for a good price, but what about those little things like a cute lamp that I got on sale from Target?

I can’t put it in the RV, there’s no since of storing it, and nobody wants to pay anything for it. Knowing this I still can’t just throw it away; I am slightly emotionally tied to it. Besides, throwing it away seems so wasteful. The few times I’ve listed things on Freecycle, people have been pretty flaky about picking stuff up. Which in the end meant that most of the items still ended up in the garbage.

Some have suggested that I take the stuff to the Salvation Army, but I’m pretty jaded about that organization. If you read the article on the New Yorker’s website you know that CM was homeless as a teenager. He says that during one winter he didn’t have a coat or any money and the Salvation Army wouldn’t give him anything to wear! I thought that was their whole purpose! So the Salvation Army is out.

Either way I’m sort of screwed at this point. All of our belongings all over the floor is really frustrating me, but at the same time if I throw them all away I’m going to feel really sad. (Why am I so tied to this “stuff”?)

Please share any creative alternatives you might have.

2 Adults 2 Kids » new yorker

On Purging (KJ)