I found these iphones 4, 5, and 6 plus chargers in a drawer.
We moved into this house 25 years ago this month. I have a few areas of the house I like to call “hot spots.” You know, the places where things fill up with stuff you don’t know what to do with. Our closet was definitely one of those hot spots. This weekend my husband and I decided to clear out the closet so we can do some remodeling.
One of my friends warned me when I told her we were getting ready to clean out our master bedroom walk-in closet. “You know what happens when you do that,” she said. “It never stops. You’re going to start a whole house-wide cleaning.”
I bought several clothing racks and we moved our clothes we decided to keep in the guest room—until construction is done. It’s amazing how much easier it is to see what you own and what you want to keep when it’s hanging neatly in the light of day, and not tucked away in a dark closet.
On Saturday, eight hours later with tired, sore back and legs. I was done. I can’t believe the amount of clothing I had stuffed into that closet. We made several trips to the closest Angel View Thrift Shop with our old clothes. Why is it hard to get rid of stuff? It seems exhausting because every item forces a decision. If way back in your closet, clothes are gathering dust, it’s probably a clue to let things go. I feel like I could have thrown out much more than I did and maybe I will.
The excitement on Saturday got me going on the drawers on each side of my sink Sunday morning. Then, I went into the bathroom shelves. There’s no end in sight to all the fun I can have. I still have my kids rooms to go through, too. Whenever they visit, I try to get them to throw their belongings out that they chose to leave behind. They never get around to it, though. I think I’d feel 20 pounds lighter in spirit to go from room to room clearing out all their junk.
We have way too much stuff. It feels so good to let it go. Once you start throwing things out and have made a few tough decisions, it gets easier. Just throw it out and I promise you, you won’t miss a single thing.
Our casa where we raised our kids.
How often do you throw things out and clean out closets? Do you feel a sense of freedom by lightening your load?
We are getting ready to lighten the load also. The story was encouraging to how much FUN we are going to have.
Good luck! Like I said, there seems to be no end to the FUN!
Sounds like a very productive, er reductive weekend. Well done! I feel sooo much better when I get rid of stuff that no longer is useful to me. Its a relief to have it out of my space and available to someone else. After doing MAJOR clean outs in the past 2-4 years, now the clean outs are minor, as we are much less prone to accumulate stuff.
Getting your kids to claim their stuff can be quite the challenge from what I’ve heard, often activates all sorts of emotions. One of my next door neighbors had her 30 something kids disowning her when she gave them an ultimatum to get their stuff out, after more than 5 years of pressure. They fully expected her to keep their stuff forever. Some reconciliation has occurred since then, but it was way more of a journey than she bargained for.
I do feel good after accomplishing so much this weekend. I will finish going through the house room by room and by the New Year, I hope to have a major 25-year clean out accomplished.
Thank you for your comments about getting kids’ stuff out. I hadn’t thought about it with an eye to the emotional context. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind!
As I think about it, we did our big clean out starting about year 25, too. Its 30 years in the house for me this month! Wow, time does fly!
I love when I get rid of stuff!! I feel better. My goal is to get to a limited wardrobe. I find I wear the same things all the time, so why have the other stuff
I find I wear the same stuff all the time, too. It changes from year to year, so I just need to get rid of it when I’m done. I had so many things with special memories that even my husband said, when he drove my clothes to Angel View, “I remember when you wore that!”
That’s so sweet. I don’t think my husband notices anything!!