The Great (Furniture) Purge : Part II

The campaign to reduce our possessions continues. This past week it was old furniture that we said goodbye to. Most of our stuff is second hand to begin with, and once we inherit anything it usually gets used till it's tattered and sagging.

We are also house hunting again. We found a bank that doesn't mind that Eli's been at the ethanol plant only six months. The hope is growing that we'll finally buy a house this year. And that thought is making us take a second look at all the stuff we may have to move. It's not a pleasant prospect. 

I bought a new (solid wood) hutch last year because my old hutch (which was made of particle board) was sagging and peeling. The last time we moved it rained while the hutch was in the back of a truck, which did it no favors. The hutch was originally a display model which was being discontinued, so it came with a few scratches--and a steeply reduced price.  I thought about leaving it in the garage as a planting/potting station, but room didn't allow for such a luxury. It had to go. 

Seeing the hutch out on the curb all by its lonesome had me eyeing our love-seat, a.k.a. "the Frankenstein couch". This treasure was salvaged from the depths of my parents' woods about seven years ago. My brothers knew a guy who was not so faithful to his girlfriend, who came home one night to a full set of furniture that was slashed into ribbons. We already had a full-sized couch, but thought the love-seat would be nice for a little extra seating in the living room. I spent an afternoon scrubbing the microfiber upholstery with Murphy's Oil Soap and stitching up the gashes with upholstery thread. It was moved out to the curb next to the hutch. Eli decided to part with our last old tube TV as well, and the motley crew got a "FREE" sign attached to them. They were all gone by the next morning.

Also on the chopping block was a pile of old dresser drawers (particle board) that were burned, and this deconstructed dresser that I was going to make a bookcase out of. It was advertised as real wood, but when they dropped it off it very obviously was not wood. The old crib is going to be gone as well before we move, but it's missing all of its hardware, so we're not exactly sure what to do with it yet.

We had inherited Little Grandma's table and chairs back when we had an accepted offer on a large house. The plan was to store it in the garage until we moved, and then use it in the school room for boys to do homework on. That never came to pass, and the table became a catch-all in the garage. We decided to sell it to someone who could actually use it. I listed it on a couple of Facebook's For-Sale groups, and it was sold within a couple hours. 

I had two wrought-iron glass-topped end tables from a long long (apartment era) time ago, that I was afraid were going to get destroyed (ahem, boys). They had been tucked away in a corner of our bedroom, unused since they didn't fit beside the bed. I decided to sell them and avoid a possible mess of broken glass. The pair brought in $25.

I have an old door in the garage that I am determined to repurpose into a chalkboard/bookcase unit. To help this happen I decided to sell our current chalkboard/whiteboard easel. We got a lot of good use out of it, but it was growing small for our big boys, and honestly I was sick and tired of buying dry erase markers whenever somebody forgot to put the lids back on. The easel brought in $10. 

All the money made from our old possessions is going into our "new house fund". The thought that it may be used to redo a bathroom, or to buy fresh paint, has taken away a lot of the indecision about whether to keep or purge. And it was really so much easier moving these things 30 feet rather than across the county! The room that these large items occupied is now free, and I feel a lot less stress with more space opening up. The living room itself has been lengthened by four feet!

For the mother post to this series, read "The Great Purge: Part I" here.

The Great Purge: Part I

"Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal." Matthew 6:19

Since last summer I've been determined to get rid of the junk cluttering our home. Or not junk, treasures...depending on who you ask. I used to think that all I needed to do was to find the perfect way to organize everything. If everything had it's own spot, voila! Organization would be achieved. Not so. At some point someone will want to get something out, and it's messy all over again. One too many things out at the same time equals chaos.

I started thinking about the Indians who traveled around with so few belongings, just to be closer to their food source. And the pioneers' sole possessions packed into a wagon for their move west; much of which was abandoned trail-side for various reasons. Simplification must be the answer. Our lives are not made better by an excess of things. I also firmly believe children's imaginations grow by leaps and bounds when not suffocated by things.

I weeded so many things out of the house and garage last year that they grew into Thing Mountain by the back door and inspired the garage sale I had last fall, detailed here. Appalling enough, most of it was just stuff I didn't want to store anymore. What if I actually got rid of stuff I liked but didn't need? Or stuff that was used occasionally but not really necessary? What if I dug deeper...until it hurt?

I got a real wake-up call the first spring we lived in this house. Tree roots grew into our sewer line, causing four inches of sewage to back up into the basement. The basement where 30 years of memories were stored in cardboard boxes. Who knew toilet water could wick up a stack of boxes four high? Everything in the bottom boxes was a complete loss. The less soggy contents of the higher boxes were only saved if they could withstand a rigorous disinfecting.

The offending trees were removed, and garage filled with soggy basement items to be sorted through. You can see a "water" line on the white box in the center of the upper photo.

I threw away a lot of memories that month, filling two standard-sized dumpsters with stuff, most of which had been precious enough for me to haul from house to house in over seven different moves. Treasures that included a diploma and my ballerina music/jewelry box that I adored as a little girl; a little pink bassinet flower arrangement from the day I was born, and my first-ever Doc Martens that cost me over half a paycheck back then. I cried, I hurt for far too long over those things. I snapped a few photos to remember things by before tossing them in the dumpster.

And then it hit me. None of those items were worth much, but the memories were priceless. I didn't need to keep the item to retain the memories, and the memories are what I was most afraid of losing. After that point, anything I felt a twinge of hesitation to pitch I simply snapped a photo of: memory secured, item gone. (I'm truly working on my photo hoarding issues, as well...baby steps! Ironically, given my family's genetic history, I'll probably leave this world in the fog of Alzheimer's disease, finally stripped of my memories.)

The whole process was liberating, and I finally felt free from the weight of all that stuff we would never have to shuffle to another house again. Letting go felt so good.

It's scary how quickly I got to the point of things accumulating ridiculous piles again. At the point of stuffocation. Genes may play a role in all this...I'm sure there have been a few hoarders in my family tree. Coming from an era of "waste not, want not", everything could be repurposed. And oh how I love to fix things. However, it's so bad my husband has banned me from buying any more storage totes, guys. If I want to store any little thing more I need to empty out a tote I already have. The horror.

Being so prone to falling down the rabbit hole of nostalgia, I'm really not sure how I'm going to tackle the whole desk drawer, file cabinet file, and two large cardboard boxes labeled "Memories" and "Scrapbook". Any previous attempts to weed things from these areas has resulted in many lost hours of memory-induced stupors. Reducing the amount of clothing we have is also a problem area for me. Possibly, just possibly, this pair of something-or-other might fit the last boy, though it never fit any of the others.... Pure silliness. I'm also paralyzed by gifts that were given to us, even if years ago. It's hard to let go of the guilt; I don't want to seem ungrateful of others' generosity. Someone is going to have to come over and dump toilet water on it all, I fear.

There are so many ways to organize and declutter, especially now when it has become such a "fad" pursuit. Probably most popular is the KonMari Method developed by Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo (keep it only if it sparks joy, though I hesitate to implement much from her method because of it's strong Shinto overtones, most notably that things have sacred power), not to mention hundreds of blog posts citing tips, tricks, and secrets to simplify and organize. I love this list of 116 things to throw away... things you wouldn't think are problematic but can really add to your home's clutter.

If I kept everything that "sparked joy" I would not get far. The number of things that I find beautiful, or imagine will be useful someday, is frankly ridiculous. And so I need some other rule to guide me in my pursuit of lessification. After all, attachment to stuff is nothing but materialism. I'm reminded of a grammar lesson from my elementary years: "It is improper to use the word love in reference to a thing. It is only lawful to use when speaking of a person." Oh how many times I've misused love.

"For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart, also." Matthew 6:21

My new checklist for purging things other than clothes; any point that gets a "no" to both questions is gone:

• Is it currently being used? If not, will it for sure be used in the next six months?
• Is it integral to the beautification of our home? Will it be used in the next six months?
• If we have multiples or many similar items, are they all being used? Are these multiple items helping to relieve chaos or clutter?
• If it's broke, can it be easily fixed? Is it too expensive to replace?
• Are you fine with tripping over this item every day?

In the spirit of not overwhelming you with too wordy a post, I'll update with purge-posts as they happen. If they happen! 

Happy Spring Cleaning!