Cleaning Out Old Things

There has been a lot of cleaning out going on around here for the last few weeks.  I don't know what finally broke the camels back but I just got fed up with holding on to old things.

Maybe you would like to be inspired to have a fall clean out as well?

These are a couple of books I've been reading that are delightful for getting one into gear. I have Unstuff Your Life on audiobook and I just listen to it while I'm decluttering or sometimes just puttering I should say.  I also like to listen to A Spring Affair on audiobook which is unashamedly a girlie girl book in which the main character spring cleans her life.  The Joy of Less comes from a minimalist approach which I always appreciate.

The Joy of Less

Unstuff Your Life

A Spring Affair

Yesterday, I looked at my Timehop account on my phone.  It had pictures of things I was going through 2 years ago that I had just picked up again yesterday.  They were some of the exact same things!  It was an epiphany for me.  Obviously two years ago I wasn't ready to let go of some of the sentimental items.

Now feels different though.  I felt like I have had enough of wasting my time, my space and my energy picking through the same old things again and again.

This is a picture of what happens when I open up my hope chest which had all kinds of old things in there.  I'm happy to say it is now empty and living in the guest bedroom instead of the office.  Many of those items have already been donated and some relocated, but all in all greatly reduced.  

Even though I feel as though I am always decluttering here and there, there were a significant amount of sentimental items that I have decided to clear out.  It wasn't easy.  It's hard in a way that I can't describe but I made that decision for my self now and for my future self.  It's doubly hard when your husband doubts every thing you want to throw out!

I want to be current in the things I own.  I'm pretty sure that the influx of toys and clothes from having a child is having a huge impact on my willingness to let go of things from the past.  There are so many new things coming in that I have to keep up somehow.

Letting go of these things is helping me clear my mind so much.  It is like a threshold has been crossed and now I am able to be comfortable without so much from my past in my present.  Maybe it's because I can now relive a childhood through my daughter and I don't need things from my childhood.  Calling Freud, Line 1!

Now where are those Holly Hobby sheets?