Several years ago, I can remember thinking that it wouldn't be too bad if my house burned down and I lost everything. I'd be able to start over, and only acquire what I needed, meanwhile shedding all the excess crap that I can't ever seem to willingly part with. Of course, I'm glad I've never actually had a house fire. I think it was just something I was imagining because I couldn't imagine actually having the strength to really give up all the meaningless possessions that I've somehow become attached to. Every so often, I go through a closet or a drawer or a room and pile up a stack of items which then get sold or donated. And that's what we did this weekend (also, Ryan would like me to add that he re-coated the roof).
The first step was the bookshelves. We went through and cleared out all the books we were sure we wouldn't want to read again. There were some that I think we've been keeping as reminders of who we once were, like ten-year-old books from grad school, or travel guides that are nearly a decade out of date. We just don't need those anymore. We ended up with a pretty big stack of books, which won't be replaced anytime soon either - I've re-discovered the joy of the library, now that I go there 3-4 times a week for various story times.
Then we hit the three boxes of CDs that were in the storage shed. Now, some of you may not be familiar with those. It stands for 'compact disc,' and you should think of them as sort of a data storage device. Back in college, they're what we used to use to listen to music. I no longer have a CD player (besides the computer) and haven't for years. So as you can imagine, those CDs no longer have much use to us. We kept some, transferring them to a cd portfolio, which takes up a lot less space. The remainder joined the books in a pile in the living room.
Next on the chopping block: DVDs. We stream Netflix, so we haven't watched a DVD in months, except for Game of Thrones, which we have to watch on disc since we don't have HBO (I'm a huge fan of the books, I have them all in English and Spanish, and they survived the purge). Almost all of the DVDs were added to the pile. If there's something we desperately want to watch again, I'm sure we can find it on Netflix.
We ended up filling several boxes and bags, which we then took to Bookmans, which is an awesome used bookstore. They took slightly more than half of what we brought in, and gave us over $200 in store credit for it. Pretty good deal, though I'm pretty sure I heard the employees who were going through it mocking some of our music choices. Ryan can't help loving Roxette. It's embarrassing, but let's not judge him for it.
After the Bookman's trip, we went through the CDs one more time, this time to determine which of the remaining CDs had a chance at being useful as thrift store donations, and which ones would be better off as garden reflectors to protect the fruit trees. It was about a 50/50 split. Once we get a working camera (note: Do not let toddler throw camera on tile floor), I'll post some pics of the new garden art/bird repellent.
Now the trunk of the car is full of the leftover books and discs, as well as a large portion of the contents of the front hall closet (another successful purge this weekend). There is also a box of magnets left over from our photography business that I rediscovered recently. We sold them for $3 each at shows, and sometimes they really made the difference between a horribly crappy show and just a mildly crappy show. But now that we don't have a business, what the hell do we do with a couple hundred magnets? Same as we're doing with everything else. At some point tomorrow, I'm taking them to my favorite thrift store and saying good-bye. It's going to feel so good!
I always love cleaning things out. I love opening up the space, both physically and emotionally. Too much clutter makes it hard for me to focus.
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