Building The Love Shack

With Fall knocking on the door and time on my hands, I decided to follow in the footsteps of the trees who when they’re done with their leaves, they let them go.

And so it began

The interesting thing about purging is where to begin. I decided to start with the hardest thing to let go of, which for me is books.

I have kept books for years. Some are family heirlooms like my grandfathers law books. Then there are others, like my text book from before my daughter was born, she is thirty-five now, and those books were still sitting on the shelves.

So I set of on the adventure of which books are worth keeping and what it’s time to say goodbye to. The decision was finally made this way, if I had to pay a mover to move a book to another house, would I want to pay to move it?

After weeks of going through books, yes, I actually sat down and looked at the content before I decided, came, the how do you get rid of them?

Getting rid of books as it turns out is not as easy as one would think. Used Book Stores are full and don’t take old text books. Second Hand Stores take some books but are in the same positions. Which now left me to recycling.

To recycle the books, the binders have to be taken off and free the pages. Hardcover books also have to be taken apart and the pages have to be freed up. At this rate, I may have them out of the house before I retire.

Next came dishes.

Having had my own home for forty-two years, came with many purchases of glassware, coffee cups and dishes. Those are the ones I purchased, not including gifts.

When we bought the Love Shack, I was able to stock the kitchen with barely a purchase. Now here I am standing in the kitchen, which has grown into my art studio where we had to add cabinets to hold my bake-ware. The art studio has been renamed the craft center. (I think I may have too many dishes).

So the same decision was made, would I pay someone to move them? The yes’s stayed, the others were sent to a Second Hand store.

Next I hit the closets. It seems that I owned brand new sheets for beds we haven’t owned in many years. While I was digging out the line-closet, I came across this black bag on the upper shelve, next to my boxed wedding dress( no we are not getting rid of my wedding dress). When I opened the bag up, even I had to shake my head and laugh. I still had a few of my children’s baby-clothes. They are now thirty-seven and as I mentioned, thirty-five. It was time to send them off too.

After multiple trips to the Second Hand store, the young man working in the receiving department asked me when I was moving. I told him not yet, there would be many more trips before.

Each week, I can see the dread in the face of the recycling pick-up guy as he has to load up all those blue bags with taken apart text books. He too has many more to come.

On top of clearing out the house, I have also given away some very lovely children books to the neighborhood children, sold some items and made some cash on a buy and sell page and found two tables that I am in the middle of turning into tables for the new deck at the cottage.

It seems this purging thing can become addictive. It has also turned out to be profitable and creative.

Along this purging journey, I have also come across items, I forgot we had. Items, we kept as they were gifts that we never used or liked but had to keep because we didn’t want to hurt someone’s feeling.

I have also found some treasured photos of those who are no longer with us. I have found pictures of family vacations and friends from high-school.

It’s amazing what we put on a shelve in a closet.

And of course, this journey made me ask myself a question, why do we put things on a shelve and forget about them?

You know a whole spiritual journey and answer came out of that.

We put things on a shelve because we are so busy making a living that we don’t take time to enjoy what we have or even know what we have. We put things on a shelve and put it away to avoid hurting peoples feelings, or maybe our own.

We put things on a shelve because we get so busy that we forget to enjoy our time or follow our dreams.

That’s when the purging became really interesting.

I stepped back and asked myself, am I doing what I want with my life?

And the answer is no.

The truth is that I am very good at my job, but I said seven years ago, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it.

So on that note, when the doctor says I can return to work, I will be doing it differently. I will be working for a purpose instead of working for a living. And with the rest of the time, as my friends who have known me for years always say “here she goes again.” I plan to pull out some of those other things I put on the shelve and chase a new dream.

I started this purging getting rid of what I thought was the hardest thing to let go, my books and ended up letting go of the things that were holding me back.

Gotta love purging. I highly recommend it.