Throw it out!

When my mother passed away, my sister and I were left with the incredibly exciting task of having to figure out to do with all of her stuff. Mom had two huge storage units, filled to capacity with the contents of a four-bedroom house. Why keep it all? We wouldn’t need to buy many things should we move into a new house. Seeing some of those things was like going back in time, and many of them were things to cherish. HOWEVER. My mom was also your typical packrat. She kept everything and the kitchen sink – literally. (By the way, does anyone need a sink?)

For example, I've always been a singer. I sing all the time, at home, at school, at church, at parties...anywhere there's a microphone or a stage, I'm on it. So of course I was in my elementary school choir. When I was in fifth grade, our conductor introduced a new song for our winter concert that involved the one thing most of us were scared of: a SOLO. Now the thing about the music program at my school is that every student had to be involved in music. If you preferred using an instrument, you had the choice of Band or Orchestra, but if you didn't select either one of those, you were in Choir by default. Obviously, then, not everyone in the choir was, well, a singer. So the idea of a solo? Didn't go over so well, and there were no volunteers.

But since I had experience singing, and was pretty confident I could do a good job, I volunteered. My first solo! Yay. It went well; I was incredibly nervous, but it was fine..and b y fine, I mean amazing (this is, after all, how divas are born).

Now, pictures and video of the concert were both taken, and of course my mom ordered both. The pictures even ended up in that year's yearbook, which we have two copies of.

The video, and the pictures, were in my mom's storage unit. Definitely a memory to keep, for both her and I.

But guess what else we found? Fifteen (15) copies of the video order form.

Now, why on EARTH would anyone keep this?! We have the pictures, we have the yearbooks, and we have the video. WHY DO WE NEED TO KEEP THE VIDEO ORDER FORMS?! There was nothing special about the forms, nothing about me was mentioned on the forms. And this concert took place in 1996. We opened up the storage unit in 2004. WHY KEEP THESE USELESS THINGS FOR 8 YEARS?!

Ugh. And you know, there were many many examples of this throughout the units. My motto for those few weeks it took us to get rid of everything was, "THROW IT OUT!"


Now I'm living with my dad, and let me tell you, I can see why they got married. My dad also keeps EVERYTHING. When I moved in, I had to basically clear out the office so that I could have a bedroom. That involved getting rid of useless computers from 1989 that were just sitting there collecting dust, emptying out the entire closet and getting rid of even more old magazines and miscellaneous papers from work and home (please tell me why you need to keep your work schedule from 1999? From a company from which you've long since retired?!). He has a subscription to Time Magazine, which he never reads, just keeps. So they just sit there and pile up. It took me a week and a half to get rid of everything.


My recommendation? Go through your things at least once a year, if not more often. Those things you think you "might have a use for someday"? Re-evaluate. Will you REALLY need it? Will you REALLY use it? I'm all about keeping things that have sentimental value, but even then, use some discernment. I can keep the ticket stub from that amazing concert, but do I really need to keep the ticket order form, or the parking slip, or the wrapper from the Snickers bar I got at the vending machine? NO.


I have moved enough times to know that it is NOT worth moving junk. If I'm going get sore feet, lots of stress, and risk pulling a muscle, it had better be worth it…

Trust and believe.


Adapted with author’s permission (since it’s me!) from www.onmyway21.blogspot.com