The elephant in the room is not our problem, all the crap that surrounds that elephant is!
We had a completely furnished 2500 sq ft home full of stuff we could care less about. If it burned down I would hardly miss it at all. We had already started over 10 yrs prior with Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, so we were old pros at living with nothing! My game plan was to stop the inflow right away and maximize the outflow of all the things.
I had been volunteering at a local kids consignment sale twice a year the past few years called Kidsignments and knew I could do some large purging through them. Anyone who has ever thought about consigning clothes knows it’s SO worth every minute of energy it takes to pull it off. Yes, it’s a lot of hanging, pinning, tagging and taping but it has always paid off for our family. Especially the volunteering aspect of it, again its hard work, long hours and logistics of getting the time to do it, but the trade off always has outweighed the latter.
Besides, I could also sell our adult clothes too, which really helped the beginning of my closet purge. But I had to remember, this sale was pretty much how we got in this position in the first place…lots of free/cheap clothes can sometimes be a bad thing, did I say that out loud?
My game plan was to stop the inflow right away and maximize the outflow of all the things.
We had furnished quiet the playroom for our children in our basement and it was about time to start to de-clutter and downsize movement in there. Among all the really nice educational toys, were just as many plastic pieces of nothing special, happy meal toys, Easter basket filler trinkets, toys bought at the grocery store to keep the child quiet and the list goes on, and on, and on!
Getting rid of these “crap” toys was my first priority. Removing this initial layer helped us see what really great toys were being neglected. Our kids have 3 sets of very generous grandparents, all of whom have gift giving as a “Love Language”. I am a thrifty shopper and I love a good thrift store or clearance aisle, so i’m not without blame in this equation either.
Repeat after me, “just because it’s on sale, does NOT mean you need it!”
A few years back I was injured at work, and while out of work for surgery and rehab I’m pretty sure I self medicated my emotions about it all via shopping. I wish I could eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting to sedate my feelings, instead I buy useless crap we do not need. Yes, it feels great in the moment, but once I’m home and it gets taken out of the bag…it becomes one more thing that needs a place to live and be kept clean.
My friend also owns a clothing swap business in Atlanta called Given Take Boutique that I volunteered my services for, again volunteering equals free stuff! I would do a good job at purging my closet to contribute toward the event but I usually left with more than I came with. My closet was full of a lot of quantity always, but lacking in quality.
I had a mini “AHA” moment while at my monthly Mompreneur Mastermind of Atlanta meeting. One of the regulars is an interior decorator and owner of Wake and Loom Designs and was redecorating one of the other members houses. They were sharing their adventures together with the group. The moment that got me was when she said the house was really easy to decorate because she had a lot of great pieces that had been collected while traveling all over the world. I felt sad, the only things I had from other places of the world were probably China or Taiwan because they were manufactured there.
I wanted my home to be treasures too, not just stuff that filled up my cart standing in front of a clearance aisle. I want to look at it my walls and remember the adventure I was on and exactly where I got it.
Then and there is where my brain began to think bigger.
I didn’t travel because I had small kids and no money, that’s how I rationalized it. I remember as a kid and young adult having big dreams, but somewhere along the way I allowed them to get shelved. I allowed myself to not feel as if I was worthy of grand adventures and an extraordinary life. I had to put my foot down there and then and I actually gave myself permission, permission to be worthy of all I wanted and more. Thus the adventure began and my mind hasn’t stopped dreaming up big adventures sense. I’m Trailin my way into a new, bigger and brighter life that I am no longer ashamed of being considered too grand.
