Britton and I have been going systematically through our house trying to purge ourselves of everything that is unnecessary. I’ve found a huge amount of junk that I have no idea why we have kept all these years except maybe that they were our favorites or useful at one point: T-shirts with holes in them, shoes that are falling apart, old bills and papers. I’ve also found some things that are harder to let go like my porcelain doll collection from when I was a kid (that I haven’t looked at in about 8 years!) or some of our furniture (like “Schnoodle’s” couch -we call it that because it is so worn out it is embarrassing to have humans use it but Schnoodle doesn’t mind). But progress and thoughts of Puerto Rico keep the purge surging.
Just one of many bags of old ripped clothes
Each weekend we pick an area or two to focus on. And we’re almost done. We’ve gone through the spare bedroom upstairs. We’ve gone through our bathrooms’ (all three) shelves and cabinets (and threw out a huge pile of old nail polishes and expired vitamins!). We went through the coat closet and under the kitchen sink. We’ve sorted through the kitchen drawers (a couple of times, because things seem to just get drawn there). We’ve gone through all the Christmas stuff in the basement and under the stairs. We cleaned out the garage. Under the bed. In the cars. It’s amazing how much junk accumulates and all the dust and grime that settles there.
These shoes have got to go!
We’ve thrown out about 8 black hefty bags of stuff that was just pushed to the corners in our house. Stuff that used to be a part of our lives, but now we’ve grown out of so it needs to be thrown out. Other stuff will be either sold on Craigslist, Ebay or at a garage sale or given to a thrift store. The standard for keeping something is pretty high. We have to use it fairly often. We have to like it. It has to be in good shape. Or it has to have very high sentimentality. Basically, there has to be a real purpose to it. Otherwise, out!
Still have a ways to go, but at least we can see the floor unlike before!
I have a theory that everything that we do or that happens to us externally is a reflection of our inner world for better or for worse. Really, everything around us is a reflection of us. We created this! So I think that not only are we purging out our junk but also some of the drama in our lives. The drama that builds up in the corners of our minds. Those certain weird vibes that reside in certain people and things. The drama that serves no real purpose but for some odd reason we have a hard time letting go.
All this junk can leave our house, and also our mind. We will see much more clearly and feel so much better. To me, I have high standards for my home. It’s not that it is the cleanest in the world, but it’s also not a mess. It has a lot of open space for possibilities to come in. But I also want to be selective of what comes into my life. I want to make sure it creates the best chance for success. Your home could be seen as a reflection of your mind. Is it cluttered or neat? Creative or boring? A sanctuary of positivity or a dark den of despair? It’s up to you to create boundaries and kick out the junk when it no longer serves its purpose. Control of your mind…and sometimes even your home can be tough, but you have to stick to your rules and periodically purge. And when all’s said and done, it feels good to get it out!
I learned a while ago a great tip for deciding which clothing items should be purged from your closet. When you wear something and have cleaned it, put it at the front of the closet. You will soon see the things that just clutter up your closet get shifted slowly to the back. You can then take everything in the back out and get rid of it.
We have been slowly going through things and have a massive pile of stuff in our garage that will be sold at a garage sale this summer. Everything else will be given to a local charity.
The hard area is the garage – teeny bits of paint in cans, tools etc. Some things you can do…put CD’s onto MP3 players and sell the discs, put photos into organized albums, part with books. You can box up books to send via boat (book rate) ahead of time and tools (wrenches and stuff) go into priority boxes (with lots of tape around them so things don’t bust out), put the doll collection at your mom’s house and have garage sales when the weather improves. It is odd the things we keep. It is odd the things we collect again.
Such good advice–every bit of it, so hard for some of us to follow. — Fran
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to toss so much out….
My biggest roadblock with a plan to move to PR is getting rid of stuff. It’s stuff, but it’s a room load of 250 year old nice antique furniture handed down from my deceased Brit ancestors. Plus a christmas ornament collection from travels around the world.
What would you all recommend me doing? I know it would be bad to let things rule my life….but.
Wil
Don’t bring anything to PR that you don’t want ruined. The climate here is so hard on just about everything. Wood will mold and or get eaten unless you take realy good care of it. Maybe it’s different if you keep the AC on in your house but without AC things dont last long.
@Wil–We considered using a storage unit, but then nixed that idea after adding up the cost of it, over years, of stuff we don’t need or use. I have been gifting valuable items and sentimental keepsakes to relatives. It really hurts to part with some material “stuff”, especially if you think the relatives won’t treasure the items as you do. Still waiting for that feel-good moment. There is some stuff I refuse to part with, hence the expensive move. Working on copying our 400 CDs to our MP3 players, but this is an endless chore that will not be completed before we go, so it’s more stuff that goes with us (we will complete this task in PR). One of our biggest challenges is our library. As soon as one of us fills a box of books for goodwill, the other will come along and “rescue” some. We need to STOP IT! Books WILL mildew in PR. If your antique furniture is not hardwood, do not take it because it will get termites. Do not take pine furniture! Hand it down to those heirs who truly want it. Only take leather things if they will be in A/C. If you’re moving to PR for good, take your carefully packed and insured Christmas ornaments if you intend to use them. Also consider how much storage room you will have in your PR home. In CA, I can fill closets and the edges of our garage top to bottom, with no worries about mildew. In PR I will be leaving adequate ventilation in closets, and no items will be stored on closet floors or in the garage (possible flooding; need to occasionally use pesticide on baseboards). Electronics are something else. I have heard the humidity is hard on them, but they are essential, so we need to budget for replacement as needed. So many things to consider. — Fran
Wil,
That is a very personal decision. If you were moving somewhere stateside it would be a lot easier to take your stuff with you, but like Jeff said, in PR things like that will just get eaten up with the moisture. If you have some that you think can make it through it (like teak or very hard woods), then that is up to you. Do you have anyone that you would trust with them?
Think of it as an early inheritance gift. Who would you want to pass down the legacy? It is hard to let things go. We put all sorts of meanings and importance on them. If you use them fairly regularly and enjoy them then you should probably keep them (with the caveat that they might get ruined in PR). But if you hardly use them or even remember that you have them, you should probably find another home for them… For us, Puerto Rico has helped us hone our skills. I think I have mild tendencies toward hoarding (keeping stuff for too long not so much bringing new stuff in), but PR has helped me to let things go. Both literally and figuratively…
You may want to loan things out or have friends use/store them so you can make sure you ARE here for good. PR is kind of going down the tubes right now and you may not want to be here forever. We are here for the caving primarily and diving/kayaking/surfing outdoor stuff etc. If you aren’t into outdoor sports stuff you may not want to be here forever. We plan on being here until we are caved out. Once I don’t want to do as much sports stuff I will want libraries, real food, grocery stores with choices and civilized behavior – we are willing to put up with the Mad max stuff for the caving. It’d be a shame to part with stuff, move here and move somewhere else where you could keep those things. We didn’t own anything like that and will be minimalists (except sports gear) where ever we go next! We may opt to sell the house soon and move closer to the caves…(up north is greyer and wetter though – yuck) closer to Jeff’s work.
Thanks so much everyone for your thoughtful comments. Especially about leather, books and soft woods. I have already gotten rid of furniture in my mind, and the items I can’t part with I’ll likely store for awhile until we are sure about staying in PR. We are on a 5 year plan to get down there.
Yesterday I returned from 10 days on the west coast in Rincon. Sun and being outdoors is so important to me. I am now back in NJ, with 36″ of snow on the ground and no sun in a sleet storm.
Katrina, I know what you mean. We had a pit bull nip and jump all over us and our towels at the beach, uncontrolled by its owner, had many near misses on narrow roads with drivers on cell phones, and numerous indescribable incidents, but I am weighing that with everything else. We can get all that here in NJ too! Wacky stuff.