getting rid of stuff

We're always talking about 'getting rid of stuff'. As the seasons change, this does happen as I discover clothes that don't fit us anymore, are un-repairable or that we haven't worn EVER. We tend to get rid of bags of clothes at those times. In fact, i recently discovered that the seasonal dresser I have in the basement for my out-of-season clothes is very nearly empty. I'm trying to keep all of my clothes upstairs in my closet, just pushing the out-of-season stuff to the back for my cat to curl up on and cover in fur and so she can pull a few threads. Grrr... No system is perfect.

Recently we found out our home is 906 square feet. While that doesn't include the basement space, for the four of us, that's small! In summer I spent a week painting the living room white and we hope to complete the home repainting through next summer. I'm trying to be thoughtful about why we have what we have. What should we give shelter to in our home? What should occupy our space with us? How important is it?

Another recent event was an unfortunate plumbing leak from our upstairs. Said sewage ran into one of our closets rendering most of the stuff in there totally gross and not worth saving. My husband, who was the lucky one to discover the poop water, just happened to be going to the dump that day and, through a few telephone calls, we decided we weren’t even sure what we had in there and it should all go. Kind of goes to show that a lot of what we have isn’t worth giving space to. It’s not worth giving over our power of a clean, calm mind to the clutter that so easily makes its way into our lives. Not that I’d wish a poop water closet on anyone else, but it gave us a most valuable lesson on make decisions on our stuff.