I am so so sorry that I’m junking you up. I really didn’t mean for this to happen. I honestly thought I’d want all of this stuff for ever and ever, amen. I hope you enjoy the video tapes of me playing basketball, be nice and don’t make fun of the terry cloth headband, I needed it at the time. If you’re super smart, you could probably commit identity theft. I shredded nearly everything that had our names or SS#’s but if you dig enough, you might get lucky.

I promise NOT to put any old paint in you. I properly dispose of that stuff during our county’s hazardous household waste collection. I also promise NOT to buy too much stuff from now on that will make its way to your borders. Thanks for your help. I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Truly,
A Recovering Consumer

Did you catch the dilemma at the end of my last post? What, you didn’t read my last post? I’ll refresh you…I would decide what to do with a stack of VHS tapes from a few of my college basketball games. First let me say, that I don’t own a VCR anymore and no, I don’t want to buy one for $30. When our last one broke a few years ago, I joyfully purged our collection of VHS tapes with no regret.

While I was shredding this pile of financial stuff in the basement (I’m not under indictment, but the post about the filing cabinet made me notice the huge pile of bank statements and old checks on top of it) I was thinking about what to do with the tapes.

Another thing you should know is that I’ve had these tapes for more than 5 years and haven’t watched a minute of them. I attended an alumni luncheon and my coach was decluttering her office. I thought my kids would want to see me play and we’d have hours of entertainment viewing them. “Pop some corn kids, it’s W&J vs. Hiram tonight!” Surprisingly, the kids aren’t clamoring to watch them.

I was imagining some conversations like, “Who wants to watch an old basketball game?” (crickets  chirping in the background) or

“Hey guys, I just spent the better part of this year transferring my old basketball games onto DVD so if you want to stay up to watch TV, you have to watch me playing basketball.”or

“Hey mom, what are you watching?” “Just one of my old basketball games” “Cool, can I watch?” “Sure”………….”Do you do anything in this game, I mean besides just run around, like do you score any points?” or

“Gee mom, you weren’t that good.” or “Gee mom, do you sit on the bench for the whole game?” or “What were you guys wearing?” (I played when the uniforms were still tight and polyester).

Needless to say, I pretty much decided that my children would have a full childhood even if they never watched one of my games. But then I was thinking, maybe I should just keep one and they can decide for themselves if they want to keep it and they could show it to THEIR children some day, Well, then that started a whole ‘nother conversation in my head….

“Hey kids, want to see Grandma playing basketball in college?” “Eww, NO!”

In all seriousness, I’m really not that hard on myself. I had to ask myself whether I’d give anything to watch a video of my dad playing one of his games in high school or college. He has some great stories about nail-biting games at a time when the whole city cared about who won. But the answer was “not really”. I have an image in my mind of him dribbling down the court and scoring. Though I have no doubt that watching him on video would meet or exceed that fantasy, what I’d give anything for is to BE at one of his games-but that can’t happen. (I’m hoping that heaven will have something like that in store for me).

The truth is, I’ve played my games. I had a great time but I’ve decided to make room in my cabinets for the present and the future. I have terrific memories of playing and being on the team and holding on to a pile of unwatched videos isn’t preserving those memories for me, so, I’ve decided to let them go.

We have a steel 4-drawer filing cabinet in our basement. It is nice to have, but I’m realizing that it’s also a nice place to hold onto the past. As part of the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, I’ve been looking at my spaces with different glasses.

In addition to our tax files, appliance warranty things,  7 years’ worth of returned checks and bank statements (do I really need these), and some personal things like resume samples and other job-search forms, I have been keeping almost 2 drawers full of old case files. Some from my days as a federal clerk, some from cases that I worked on that include lots of my legal writing. Other files contain forms and resources for employment law-related issues since that was my area of practice.

I haven’t worked full-time for 13 years but I was keeping these files “just in case”. Just in case of what? Aside from a few writing samples, no prospective employer is interested in the nitty-gritty of any of those cases. Part of my reason for keeping them is that they reflect professional successes so I guess, it was emotional attachment, too. But I am years past needing validation from my days in the working world. I really don’t care about that anymore.

To be honest, my brain doesn’t really even process the legal language anymore. Anyone who might hire me in the future-quit reading now-but I don’t remember ANYTHING! As a former federal clerk, I knew the federal rules pretty thoroughly, I don’t even recognize them anymore. 12(b)(6)? Huh? I have to attend continuing education classes in order to keep my license active. I only do it as insurance in case Mark loses his job or something worse. I bumped into a classmate who is also staying home but keeping up with requirements and we were both talking about how we’d be in trouble if we had to work again. She asked whether I could write anything in blue book form (a legal writing standard for briefs), my response was I forgot there was a blue book form. My point is, I didn’t need 2 drawers full of files which basically remind me every time I look at them that I don’t remember anything.

Aside from a couple of writing samples, the files are GONE!

Next up-and I might need your help with this….a stack of VHS tapes from my college basketball games. Even the most relentless purgers among you have to admit, that that’s a tricky one.

You’ll never guess what happened. I’m pretty sure my digital video camera broke today. I opened the tape compartment to put in a new one so I could video my neighbor shooting off giant icicles with a BB gun-no we don’t live in West Virginia-and the compartment won’t close. To be honest, I made this purchase about 6 years ago when my youngest son was just over a year old and I became panic-stricken that I would miss his first steps. He had some developmental issues. I was tempted to launch into action. Call sony, trouble shoot, find out how to fix it, how much it will cost and how long it will take. But then, I remembered…..I’m trying to simplify, right?

The truth is, I never take the video camera to major events because I want to experience them and enjoy them in real time. I have mostly used the camera to tape everyday happenings that I don’t want to forget-certainly not everyday. I’ve had the camera for almost 6 years, but I’ve probably only taped about 6 hours of video. I find the process of uploading and editing and creating DVD’s too tedious.

I’m asking myself, is this little appliance worth all the energy? Maybe I should just cut my losses-in terms of time and energy. Both mine and Hannah’s point-and-shoot cameras take video if I’m ever in a bind and we are going to be forced to re-evaluate our cell phone plan in April. I’m pretty sure you can’t even get a phone without video. So, folks, I’m letting go.

Wasteful, maybe, in terms of monetary investment. But in terms of time and energy, I’m thinking my decision is most cost-efficient.

Thank you sony.

I decided to get rid of a GIANT piece of furniture. We got it about 14 years ago. It’s a big computer armoire and has served us well. I recently realized that it’s too honking big for the space. It hasn’t always been that way but since it moved into our dining room, we’ve added a large upright piano and a regular sized dining table (as opposed to the antique cherry drop leaf table that now sits in the corner in the same room). A repurposed antique sewing table serves as my computer/junk table. That’s a lot of furniture for this 13’X 15′ room. The other thing I realized is that the height of it makes it aesthetically awkward for picture frames, even a nice lamp. It’s a little tall which makes the guts of the lamp visible.Consequently, the big flat space up there has become a clutter magnet. That’s BAD!

This is a big move because this piece houses A LOT of stuff-both essential and non-essential to daily living. I keep homeschooling things in it, stamps and other office things, bills, books, records, tax stuff. Some things can be moved to other bookshelves in the house, some can be purged but others, I need to find a visible home for (outta sight outta mind).

My hope is to clear it out and post it on Craigslist. Honestly, if I can’t sell it, I have a problem because, as I said-it is HONKING BIG! In fact when the delivery men brought it the first time they dropped it (broke a few things in the process) and had to take it back because they broke the cabinet, too.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

FS: Beautiful pine computer armoire.

I’ve been clearing things out pretty much since the week after Christmas. Slowly, just taking time to think about how I want my spaces to look and feel. For the past couple of days I keep hearing my brain tell myself (does this ever happen to you?) “Use what you have.” I can’t even count the number of times I hear myself saying this to myself. Is this inspiration? not sure, but I’m paying attention and thinking about all the ways that this can be applied toward my efforts to SIMPLIFY.

Groceries: I’m no hoarder but there are plenty of things in my freezer and pantry that I can use up before buying ingredients for meals. I don’t have years’ old anything but I can definitely say I have things that I should use. I’m talking entire meals with the exception of maybe the vegetable. I planned my weekly menu this week with this principle in mind and really only picked up a few things at the grocery store this morning. I’ll check in at the end of the week and let you know how this went.

Craft supplies: I have a craft shelf in the basement and my daughters have stores of the things they frequently use in their closet. I’m determined to use what I have before making another run to the craft store. We were going a lot during Advent and that’s fine, but I really want to use what we have. My older dd asked today if we could go to Michael’s because beading supplies are 40% off. This is the tricky part. If I tell her to use what she already has, will she be less inspired? That’s the dilemma when kids and creativity are involved. I’ll see how this goes.

Books: This is my weakness. As a homeschooler, book purchases (leisure and curriculum) are easily justified but not always necessary. I have plenty of books for all of us to use without buying more for the moment. Remembering to “use what I have” applies perfectly to homeschooling books.

I will only add to this that I also am determined to “get rid of what I don’t use”. So, I’ll rephrase my goal “Use what you have and let go of what you don’t use!” That second part has crept in and I think it will help.