This is the time of year when people who live in Maine get antsy.
Enough with being indoors for days on end! Enough with listening to the furnace run incessantly! Enough with eating way too may carbs just for the fun of it!
It’s not just me; I see people around me cleaning out and clearing up their living spaces. Out of boredom, as a result of cabin fever, or simply a matter of recognizing that “it’s time,” the stuff is hitting the curb.
To the casual observer, my home is, as you’d expect, organized and tidy. (It may not be clean, but it’s neat.) But even in this space there is so much around me that I really don’t need.
And to my surprise, once I started culling, there is so much that I no longer want.
Things change. We all change all the time, whether we like to acknowledge it or not. (For a more thorough look at the notion of change, click here to visit a past blog on the topic.) Things which used to pull on our heart-strings can loosen their grip pretty quickly if we’re not attentive to the holding on.
The February purge at my house started with needing some extra cash to pay taxes come April. Ring the bell for Round One: Gather items for resale at a local consignment shop. This pile included pottery, framed prints, objects d’art, and jewelry. If all the items sold for their full price during the first month of consignment –-which they won’t – I’ll make $350.
Now I’ve got some momentum going … ring the bell for Round Two: Clear out old photos.
This is a tough one for many of us. It pangs me to toss holiday-card photos of friends and family, cramming those cherubic faces alongside the coffee grounds and used tissues. Was I ready to part with images of my daughter at age 6 on her new bike, or me in my 80’s outfits and hairdo visiting New York City?
Out, out, out! By the time I was done with Round Two, a shoe box full of past experiences and most of the pages from my wedding album were in the trash. I did save a few photos of grandparents and family, the kind of thing my “future heirs” might enjoy. But do they really want to deal with photos of rocks taken in Colorado circa 1992?
Now I’m seriously on a tear. Scanning the house like a CIA operative….what else can be jettisoned?? Ring the bell for Round Three: Cast off old relationship mojo.
Honestly, this one was not difficult, but was more a case of paying attention to what had just “hung around” long after relationships ended. .. my wedding dress included.
I’m not sure why I was keeping it; there was no sentimental attachment to a marriage that ended over 20 years ago. It’s not as though I wanted my daughter to wear it – she would be horrified. The truth was, I still thought it was pretty. I still liked it, the covered buttons and heavy lace and its flowing simplicity.
Out.
Once recognized as a piece of a past with which I was finished—out. No pangs.
I had to purchase a new bedroom clock since the one I’d been using was remains of a 10-years- gone love affair. For years I’d been sleeping next to “old lover” time. It worked well and fit with my décor but lordy what a bad vibe!!
Sold my bentwood rocker on Craig’s list, a much-loved chair received as a gift on my first-year wedding anniversary, at which time I remember saying, spontaneously, “”I’ll rock our grandchildren in it.”
Which I have, and now can let it go; the chair has done its job, served its purpose in my life. Do I have to tell you that the woman who bought the rocker had been looking for this exact piece of furniture for months and was thrilled to now own it?
Whether you do it out of boredom, for extra cash, to release yourself (and others) from past relationships, to cleanse the energy in your home, to create more physical space for your life as it is NOW, clearing out is GOOD MOJO.
Make room for what is important to the YOU you are today; it is time and energy invested in the YOU you are becoming.
Jeanne Fiorini offers easy ways to simplify and clarify your life.
Visit the She’s Neat website or contact Jeanne at shesneat@myfairpoint.net.
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