The Urge to Purge

Aren't we industrious on the blog this week?  And about such captivating topics as water heaters, basements, junk removal...If we're this interesting in the virtual world, just imagine how great we are in real life!  Like a barrel of monkeys, let me tell ya.  Organized, disciplined, no-nonsense monkeys.  Life is one big party in our house.

The forced purge of the basement, although I have complained about it and will continue to do so, has been a blessing.  As I mentioned, one of our OCD goals for the year was to clean it out anyway.  But I had wanted to bring up the topic of deeper purging with you peeps - the need to completely declutter things.  Ever since the beginning of 2011, we have addressed the decluttering on and off.  We'll go through a closet here, a cabinet there.  Now that we're a good six months into it, I have some observations to share:

• I want a simpler life, and I enjoy getting rid of stuff we haven't used, looked at, or thought about in years.  It may not be this way for everyone, but for me there is something cathartic about sorting through things and letting them go.  I have no need to fill the empty space.  I have no desire to replace what is gone, because I don't miss it.  It's almost as if I'm making space for something more important, metaphysically speaking.  The level of...compulsion...I feel about getting rid of the unnecessary is almost like a conviction.  Which makes me wonder...

• For those of you still reading after that first bullet point, I've also discovered that there's a particular method of sifting through things that works for us.  We go through things multiple times.  I highly recommend this for those of you looking to downsize, give to the needy, or who move often.  We'll go through our closets and get rid of clothes we haven't worn in a year or more.  This will generate a bag or two for goodwill.  About 2 months later, we'll repeat the process.  Oddly enough, we still produce 2-3 bags!  And we're not shopaholics - we're not going crazy replacing our clothes or anything.  We've used this process for the library & the kitchen, and in the future (before January, people!) we'll use it in the laundry room, the garage and - LORD help me - the rest of the basement.

• We're not hoarders or anything.  I think what's happened to us is a result of moving around and accumulating stuff during the first few years of our marriage, then settling down into one place and letting it all spread out, then get pushed into corners, and eventually covered up by other stuff since there's no pressing reason to sort through it all. You're not going to flip on the TV and see a documentary about us.  Well, if you do, I can guarantee it won't be about our possessions. 

This is sooooo not us:

In light of the many times that I've had to move around and urgently sort through things while pulling my hair out and whining incessantly, this current experience is downright enjoyable.