January Purge Fest

Our disassembled bed, dresser
drawers, and SCB cleaning off
our Ceiling fan like the tall manly
man he is. Cleaning is Sexy :)

I don't know about you, but I think I might have a little touch of OCD because every January I make my husband help me go through everything we own... and I mean everything.

Every drawer gets emptied, wiped down, and then filled with the items we wish to keep. We move our bed, vacuum underneath it and go through every storage bin, every closet... every inch of our condo all in an effort to evaluate if our belongings deserve the prime space they take up in our condo.

I guess the years of dorm moving and apartment swapping made a very strong impression on me. Back when I was moving every year I was forced to come face to face will all my belongings as I boxed everything up, carried it down the stairs, and stuffed it into my car, and my loving friend's assorted pick-up trucks.

While I know that I'm not moving anytime soon, the habit has been hard to break because the reward of a clean house with less clutter is amazing. Truly! You have no idea how great it feels to walk into a house and not be stressed out by what you find (ie junk and clutter everywhere).

I also like the annual purge because its nice to go through all my sentimental keepsakes and remember the fond moments they remind me of. It's also a good gauge to see if those items still hold a spark or if I should pass them on because they no longer remind me of the things they once did.

This years example is my grandpa's gnome.

You see, back when I wasn't talking much with my mom, my grandfather passed away, and I wasn't invited or allowed to go up to palm springs to say my farewells or take any memento's to remind me of his awesomeness. At the time I was talking with my sister and I told her to to get something for me... anything really... and I jokingly told her to nick one of the random yard figurines if she had to & she did...

She brought me back a gnome... a faded, dirty garden gnome... and I kept that gnome on the small side table in my living room next to his picture... just to have something that was my grandpas (it didn't matter to me that it was creepy and seriously need a new coat of paint... nope it just stayed there).

Eventually later down the line my mom (via my sister), sent a few of my grandpa's santa's village houses to me to have to be reminded of him. I gradually added to the few I was given and had a small village I could display each year. As time went on, the Santa's Village began to give me the warm feelings of remembrance I needed for my grandfather, and the gnome no longer did. Instead it reminded me of my family not letting me say goodbye to my grandpa. The gnome made me bitter...

and this year I decided to pitch it.

(I forgot to take a picture of it to show all of you before it left, but SCB was too thrilled to see it go to keep it a second longer to snap its picture.)

So what else got pitched? Some clothes, books, DVD's we never watch nor ever will, a few nick-knacks, trash & junk... and some items we just haven't used and or had replaced with better versions that more suited our needs.

Along with the discarded items and the gnome was our patio chair... Yes. SCB managed to break another chair.... again.... making it the 5th chair he has broken since he moved to California. He has gone through 2 office chairs, one dinning room chair, and 2 folding/camping chairs... I don't know what to do with him anymore...  he always manages to break them right along the arms or possibly the back if there is no arms....

So now we have one camping chair, and one folding chair... I think the next ones we get won't have arm rests. I think after 5 chairs he has lost that privilege.

But I'm proud to say we are almost done. All we have left is the computer desk to clean and de-clutter!!!!!