Sanford and "Wife"

That's what I feel like.  We've been cleaning out (or up) the place for the last two weeks.  There's nothing better than spending your afternoons in an attic with outside temps over 100.  My pores are clean and I paid no one. After this last move 3 years ago, I refused then to NEVER move stuff that we don't use.  Two years ago I got rid of box after box of 20 year old wedding gifts that had never seen the outside of the box it was packed in 20 years ago.  Every time I would go through the attic or move, I'd think, "Now I just know I will have a use for these 6 crystal pitchers." 

Nada.

So, two years ago we got rid of lots of stuff in our garage sale.  But this summer it was different.  Now it was Doug's turn to let go and let loose.  He's had a bit tighter grip on his stuff of 15+ years that he doesn't even know he has.  (Sad to say, but I've "helped" him purge at various times over the years.)  But this time, he finally ditched a box of college textbooks.  We collectively agreed that the 3 1/2" floppies and the notes on DOS were out of date, the old professors had probably died, and  it doesn't look like you're planning to attend medical school any time soon, so really, why are we hanging onto this stuff?  And yes, those I Can Learn Spanish in Easy 14 Lessons on VHS that we've been carting from house to house for the last 18 years must go.  And, let us not forget the 5 boxes of infomercial materials that my husband bought when he stayed up a little too late one night.  They have never been opened.  I personally cleaned out no less than 20 boxes of old stuff hanging around in the attic.  I even have plans of sending our hard copies of pictures in bulky albums to a place here in town to scan them and put them on CD. 

Let me must say it was liberating.  Let me repeat. LIBERATING! Thanks to our intense clean out efforts, we'll only require 2 giant U-Haul trucks next time we move instead of 5. 

 Doug and I have both decided to not let our stuff define us any more.  Fear of lack has kept us in bondage for years.  We are children of the Most High God.  We lack for NOTHING.  It's high time we start acting like it.  We took pictures of stuff and then just let it go. (Let me clarify...pictures of "sentimental" stuff.  I did not take a picture of Herman Cassidy's Becoming a Millionaire by Buying Dilapitated Homes infomercial package.)

And then we had the junk piles.  When you have acrerage, you are entitled to junk piles.  I'm not sure that is a good thing because that then turns into the "good" junk pile and the "real" junk pile.  To define the difference, the "good" junk pile is stuff that could be used for future projects.  (Which, by the way, never get used for said future projects...) The "real" junk pile has seen its day. For instance, rather than pay Sears $30 to haul off our old dishwasher, we just tossed it into the "real" junk pile. Two days ago we decided to haul off all things junk.  ALL THINGS. 

The scrap metal went to scrap metal recycling place here in town.  Yes, we recycled.  Amazing for those of you who know us.  This morning the girls and Doug took a field trip to the dump.  I'm not sure who was more excited--the children or their father. I've never been.  I don't really have an inkling to go either.  I understand it smells.  The dishwasher proudly sat at the front of the trailer.  Coupled with all the old stuff overflowing the trailer, all I could do was think about how we had almost become a real live Sanford and Son.  Never Again.  Never Ever.

(Now, what Sanford and Son have to do with "stuff" is beyond me.  It's just that whenever I hear that song, I think of junk piled everywhere.  I don't know...)