Tag Archives: purging

Challenge, Letting Go

Letting Go Challenge: Week Three

Leave a comment
  • 2 more worn-out floor mats
  • dog-chewed lid
  • dog-chewed bowl
  • dog rope
  • shower shoes
  • open-toed shoes
  • instant coffee
  • pillow
  • fingernail polish remover bottle*
  • another service pin
  • 3 champagne glasses
  • small coffee pot
  • torn up barbecue grill brush
  • phone book–2013 from office
  • arthritis soak (Did NOT work!)
  • purple shirt–melted
  • paper jacket from my first mammogram
  • Mitchie folder

I’m counting the polish remover bottle since I consolidated bottles.  The dog has never played with the rope, preferring by far entire rolls of toilet paper, entire bags of sanitary napkins, and, as it would appear, Rubbermaid containers and lids as well as the occasional really cool pillow.

She also has an occasional hankering for Tesslon Pearls.

She’s better now. I’ve had these things for a while.

The champagne glasses, I’m pretty sure, are from the set I bought for my wedding, two of which were decorated and later unceremoniously stripped of its ribbon and baby’s breath.

That sounds a little more than vaguely violent.

I have no idea neither who Mitchie is nor how I ended up with a folder. The stuff worth trying to give away, I have, and the rest in the trash.

Proof that I really do hang onto everything–the blue and white lump is a paper jacket that I was given for my very first mammogram. My favorite purple shirt–a tough one to let go of–apparently had some sort of plastic fiber in it. It had spots where it had been literally melted–proof, I suppose that I do occasionally cook.

Sixty-three things down, but I can’t yet bring myself to touch my books. I want to get them to a single book case in the living room, with the overflow in the office. But I want to read them all first. I know some of them aren’t worth reading because I’ve already tried. But I still hang onto them, because I’m just not ready to go there.

So I make excuses, and find other things to get rid of.

Challenge, Letting Go

Letting Go Challenge: Week Two

1 Comment

This week’s 21 things:

  • very dirty, worn out door mat
  • terra cotta owl
  • Glen Haven ear cleanser
  • Flea and Tick spray
  • Cat Calmant
  • Dermacare Anti-Itch Spray
  • Hairball Remedy
  • Extreme Groom Waterless Foam shampoo
  • Chinese take out dish (cracked, courtesy of the dog)
  • Rubbermaid storage piece and lid (chewed, courtesy of the dog)
  • 9 small spools of thread (where do they keep coming from?)
  • Peanut butter jar lid (I don’t even want to know)

This week was a trip back in time, and one I’m surprisingly grateful for.

All of the cat items (listed by brand in case I want to find them again) were from a time I had been reunited with my cats after Hurricane Katrina. (So, the stuff is at least NINE years old!)

I was very grateful that I had someone far away to take them in when I couldn’t. I was living in a fish camp on the river at the time, not exactly the driest place to be that summer, but it was drowned in mud and dead fish and, to this day, has yet to be rebuilt.

It has, however, been cleaned and gutted.  So, no dead fish smell.

I was grateful that someone had taken them in.  He had offered to take me in, too, but I was too stubborn, too tied to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and my family to ever truly consider leaving.

They had been staying in Florida, vacationing as I called it, while we dealt with the aftermath.

The hurricane itself was a breeze (ha!), I actually slept through the majority of it, but the aftermath was something entirely different. That was a rough time for me; I was living in a camper far too tight for cats who couldn’t stand each other, my alpha having already been returned to me due to her inability to play well with others. She’s never really played well with others.

Maybe that’s why I’m writing a book about her.

I was not so grateful, however, when I saw what shape they were in when they returned.

All of these products were either purchased by the Keeper of the Cats during their stay, or by me to help them recuperate after their stay.

It was a long road to recovery for all of us. It took them a long time get healthy again, and it took me a long time to get my anger within healthy parameters again.

In the end, I realized that he did the best that he could given the circumstances, and he did a hell of a lot more than I was able to, given the circumstances. Once I realized this, this key fact: that he, for all of his attributes and actions, character and circumstances, honestly did the best that he could do, there was something that was similar to–but not quite–forgiveness that sparked within me.

I had realized there was nothing to forgive despite how things may have appeared.

When that happened, I could forgive myself for subjecting them to such tribulation: there was nothing to forgive. I, too, had done the best that I could have done given my attributes and actions, character and circumstances.

There was nothing to forgive despite how things may have appeared.

And I’m not saying that I’d make the same choice today that I made back then. I have, after all, learned a LOT about emergency preparedness since Katrina.  It’s just that the choice I made was the best one I could have made at the time.

And that is glorious. No blame. No shame. It just was.

It probably was one of the most powerful lessons on forgiveness I’ve ever had.

A side note: I had originally included my Misfit  (so very NOT recommended), but switched it out for another item when I found out I may be able to get my money back on it.

The owl I had bought for someone’s birthday at least 2 years ago. I’ll be gifting it this week.

Forty-two things gone. The thread (all of it) re-homed with a sewing-addicted coworker, the rest of it trashed or re-homed.

I have to say that I am just a little bit impressed with myself.

I had a little lagniappe for the week: In cleaning out my junk drawer, I switched drawers, so that my “junk” drawer is a much smaller one, and what had previously been the junk drawer now holds dish towels. The result of this is that I have a little more room in my pantry, since it was holding the dish-towel overflow.

What a magnificent thing.

Challenge, Letting Go

Letting Go Challenge: Week One

2 Comments

I have way too much stuff. Stuff I don’t use, stuff I hold onto “just in case,” stuff taking up room in my home and in my life that I simply don’t have the inclination to allow any more.

Perhaps it was the change in weather (it actually feels like Fall in October in South Mississippi–this is a new experience for me), perhaps it is the  post-RA feeling of purpose and identity and organization I’ve found, perhaps it’s just being done with the old. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for it.

I have too much stuff.

I’ve mentioned that a friend is doing a “Min Challenge” (as in minimalism) via Instagram, a 30 day challenge that asks that she rid her house of 1 thing on the first day, 2 things on the second day, and so forth, until the 30th day of the month.

That’s waaaay too ambitious for me.  So I modified it.

My goal is to get rid of 21 things a week, which breaks down to 3 items per day.  I figure this is doable. By setting my target for the week rather than the month, I’m able to cover for days I can’t do much of anything.

So here goes:

For week One, I rid myself of a shirt and 2 pairs of shoes (not pictured, since I’ve already given them away) and these items:

  • a purse I won’t ever use
  • a stuffed cell phone
  • a pair of Mardi Gras beads
  • a 10 year service pin
  • 5 small spools of thread
  • dog collar
  • pair of shoes
  • 6 old phone books
  • flash light that doesn’t work (Yes, I tried new batteries)

The recyclable stuff will go out for recycling; the toy stuff will go to my niece and/or nephew. The stuff I can give away, I will, and the stuff I can’t, I’ll trash.

Some observations:

  • I had phone books from 2010. Crimey.
  • In the process, I’ve already found a couple of things that  I’m experiencing resistance to getting rid of. I put them aside and will deal with them later–I have plenty of stuff that can come before it. I asked myself, “Why am I holding onto it?” but I didn’t have an answer.
  • I had an interesting reaction to finding my Years of Service pin. Because I’m still working there, I’ll table that subject for another time.
  • I managed to get my overflowing “junk drawer” cleaned out. A HUGE accomplishment. It’ll be an even bigger accomplishment when I find homes for the stuff that isn’t actually junk.

So that’s it for this week. Anyone up for doing this challenge with me?