My sister helped me clean out my closet. And by “helped” I mean she laughed at my fashion disasters, kept her judgments about my shoe collection to herself and gave me permission to get rid of old clothes that have no stains or holes.
My daughter has been sorting through her stuffed animals and toys and clothes, purging her belongings. I did not prompt her to do so and so I’m amazed at my pack-rat daughter. “Mom, I just can’t believe I had so many ugly toys!” she said.
I have a scary storage room that will need my attention, too. And closet shelves and dressers and cupboards and drawers full of the accumulation of twelve years in this house.
This is the longest stretch I’ve ever lived anywhere. My childhood years were spent in many houses, but during my school years (kindergarten to graduation), I only lived in two houses. After I was married, we managed to move every two or four years . . . until we landed here.
So, not only do we have roots, we have clutter and stuff and too many boxes of Christmas decorations.
The start of every school year feels like the start of the year to me . . . so it’s time to sort, purge, clean, organize and get ready for another year to begin.
Anyone need a Halloween costume? A lampshade without a lamp? Eighteen thousand Golden Books?
Actual Unretouched Photo 
cripes, at first I read anyone want eighteen thousand gold nugets. and I started yelling and dancing then I read it again. Now I’m all down in the dumps and it’s all your fault. But you can make it up to me. How? you say. well come on over to my Paradise and see…
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***waving her hand franctically**** I’m ready to purge!!! Really, I am. Storage in this house has never been stellar, and I am sooooo frustrated by the stuff. I’ve been throwing so much away, that I KNOW I’m going to be saying “Where is that (fill in the blank)? Oh yeah, I THREW IT AWAY!” *sigh*
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I highly recommend Freecycle. I’ve had better luck with fc than with Craig’s List. The fc people seem to be much nicer in general; they show up when they say they will and answer emails, for the most part. CL is good too, but the folks don’t seem so dependable. Just my two cents. Good luck with the clearing out!
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‘Tis the season……….I, too, have been getting rid of things. (If you were to look at my place, you might wonder, though.). Just a week ago I threw away a broken lamp and the shade which was perfectly good – I had kept them for 5 years, always intending to get the lamp fixed.
Also took 10 coats out of the hall closet that are now on their way to the thrift store. I held each one up, tried some on, laughed at others, then quickly threw away the hangers. I too often think of how much things cost, then want to keep them just because. However, just because is not a good enough reason to keep Stuff – Junk – Clutter – Treasures. Oops – scratch that last one. (My mind set still needs some adjusting.)
BUT, your 18,000 golden books could come here and keep my golden books company… it’s just a thought.
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I need to do that to every closet, every dresser. It’s just so much dang work! And it’s a lot easier to chuck my kids’ prized possessions than that one dress that was so cute on me when I could fit into it.
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Not to get in the way of your purging here (and this is an old post so it may be too late), but I suggest you hold on to the Golden Books. We have a bunch of new copies of the classic ones that they have kept publishing, but there are a few I remember from my childhood and would like to have now but are now out of print. Someday you might want to read them to grandchildren and relive old memories with the next generation!
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