One month until my birthday! Then I will be 22 years old. WOOT! Your age is only a pallindrome every eleven years. Better make the most of it!
Samuel is gone on another campout. Luckily though my brother David is here and can hang out with me sometimes.
Since accumulating lots of new clothes at various Goodwills in Virginia, and bringing lots of my old stuff back from Kansas, I’ve gone through all my stuff and come up with two trashbags full for DI. One of my favorite things in the world is purging my stuff, simplifying my possessions. I get the “urge to purge” every couple months. In fact, it’s usually when the seasons change. I am not as hard-core as some simple-living folks: I believe in having a varied collection of clothes, fabric, books, and movies. I just make sure that all of the items are things that I either love desperately, or use very often, or both. But other than that, I side with Thoreau: the things we own often make our lives needlessly complicated. The more stuff you have, the more time and money you have to spend taking care of it: cleaning it, storing it, insuring it, organizing it…. Getting rid of stuff is a freeing experience –as long as you don’t need it to survive!
Here is one of the first articles I read about simple living and getting rid of stuff: Cropping Our Possessions
During Education Week I went to a really interesting class about homemaking. The instructor said something that has influenced the way I de-clutter: “Keep nothing in your home that is neither useful nor beautiful.”
That being said, I want to come raid your stuff before you take it to the DI.