The De-Cluttering Express

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Sunday Morning, August 28, 2016

After I ate breakfast, I read the paper and washed my hair. That done, I made a run to Walgreens for some black plastic bags for discards. Lauren, the lovely black girl, was working the register. I made it a point to smile and tell her good morning and the smile was returned.

Then I set to work, filling a black garbage bag with trash. Then I put things that no longer brought me joy into boxes to donate on Tuesday morning. I find this a wonderful exercise. For a while, longer than a decade, I kept many of Bob’s mementos from his life. Today it gave me more joy to let them go than to keep them. Among the discards: A pair of his black plastic glasses from the 70’s. I kept the last pair he wore in case Rob should want them. But you can’t win in these things. If I asked, Rob would probably have wanted the plastic ones. So I have to make the call to let them go.

I got rid of several bags worth of clothes that no longer give me pleasure to wear for different reasons. Feelings of guilt arose, but I reminded myself that someone would enjoy them. Yesterday I de-cluttered the kitchen hutch and built-in desk shelves there. I felt very good about that paring down. Right after Bob died, I declared the hutch to be a brand new space for me. And through the years, it got over-filled with beautiful things. So now I have less there, which is more.

In the bathroom I got rid of some accessories, a wooden madonna and a stained-glass angel. They shall go to the two women who clean house for me. And last of all, I took a ceramic angel that I gave Bob for Christmas long ago and put it out with all of the other discards. As I recall, he was not especially fond of it. Besides he is an angel himself now.

“My burden is easy and my yoke is light.” Jesus

Vicki Woodyard

2 Comments

  1. Interesting and helpful for me to read as I approach the 8th year since Linda’s death I am beginning to see glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel yet still struggle to let bygones be bygones. I am a hoarder by nature so it remains one step at a time but your approach of discarding things that “no longer bring me joy” is simple and direct making it a little easier to let go of the past while allowing space for the future to be a new lease on life.

    Reply

    1. Hoarding must be awful. If anything I tend to throw away things before I need to. Bob left the basement for me to declutter and I used it as therapy.

      Reply

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