Unleashing The Beast

Recently I unleashed a beast in this house...the anti-clutter beast who purges everything and prevents hoarders from taking over the world. Drew made a few references to me being a hoarder in recent months, which I bawked at because seriously...have you not seen that new Hoarders Buried Alive series on TLC? THAT is hoarding...what we have here is just a wee bit of a mess.

One of the psychologists on the TLC series categorized hoarders as 'organized hoarders' and 'unorganized hoarders'. IF I were to be deemed a hoarder at all, I would definitely be an 'oranized hoarder'. All of my stuff is in stacks and bins and piles of the same 'type'...and I pretty much know where everything is. The reason my stuff is sitting in these stacks and bins and piles is because I can't just put things away. They have to be placed in a certain location for a reason. For example, if I have a kitchen cupboard currently filled with glasses, cups and mugs, I can't just put bowls in there. Even if there is nowhere else for those bowls to go and this particular cupboard has room for them, they don't 'fit'. This means the bowls would then be placed in a bin or someplace out in the open until a logical place could be found for them. If a spot is never found, they continue to sit there....and that's when the piles build up and I have to start getting rid of them.

Anyway...I have spent the last couple of months attempting to rid this house of a significant amount of stuff and I think I have been doing pretty well! Last month I took a truckload of baby/kid toys, clothes and gear to the Just Between Friends Sale in Eagan. If you're interested in finding one of these in your area, you should check it out here: www.jbfsale.com. You will make more money on your gently used items at these consignment sales than anywhere else! Last week we added a bunch of household items to our neighbor's garage sale and I took another truckload of baby/kids items to the Just Between Friends Sale in Elk River tonight. When all is said and done, we will have made over $1000 in the last 2 months, just purging unused items! Not only has this given us some extra cash in our pockets, but we have also donated quite a bit to Goodwill as well. Double whammy!

As for the house...things are looking MUCH better, but we still have a ways to go. I plan to continue searching for items to purge and am starting to feel so 'light'...and not so tied down by all of this stuff. I'm exhausted from the late nights of sorting and tagging and pricing, but it has definitely been worth it! It's getting easier and easier to let things go, the more I do it!