Why do have all this stuff?

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been going through old pictures, newspaper articles, cards and other miscellaneous items that I have keep in bins in the basement.

I’ve gone through the large tub of pictures and the medium size tub of cards and such and put them into smaller containers.   It was hard and I wanted to quit many times because it was over whelming.

Why do I have all of this stuff? I asked myself fifty times while I was purging.

What was the sense of keeping my wisdom teeth that were pulled in the 10th grade?  I had six removed — having two sets of wisdom teeth runs in my family.   I probably thought that was a big thing back then. They were gross and still had blood on them. I tossed them.

I saved my retainer, too.  I have no idea why I saved this.  Did I think I was going to get braces again and that I could use the same retainer.  I don’t know….I tossed the retainer.

I think half of the bin was cards I received from people over the years.  I saved the envelopes too.  I let myself keep two cards that meant something to me for each person and the rest had to go.

Now that I’m into the second half of my life and I don’t have any kids I ask myself while I’m sorting is this going to be of any importance to anyone but me after I die.  I don’t want my husband or my family to have to get rid of all of that stuff when I’m capable of doing it today.

I think part of being fabulous in our fifties is keeping what speaks to us and getting rid of the rest.

Before I started to sort through my stuff I read a book called the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo.  I have noticed changes in my life over the last couple of weeks.  I’ve lost two pounds and my jeans are loose  (yeah!).  I’m clearer on the direction I want my life to go.

I’ve tossed at least 5 small blue bags of paper out of my house and one garbage bag of old pictures and stuff.  It feels good to get rid of all of that stuff.  I feel lighter.

Now I have to go and shred all of the envolopes and all of the other stuff that has my address on.

Luckily my mom’s cousin has a hobby farm so what I recycle is going to good use.