Living A Dream

Nightmare is more like it. I'm living in a garage sale. 

I can't put anything down anywhere or Hubby will come along with his price gun and tag it for fifty cents. Nothing is safe.

There's no place to sit. No place to eat. And, I can't find shit! It's a certain kind of meyhem that doesn't just clutter my space, it's cluttering my mind.

The big sale is tomorrow. Selling everything, just about. Lots to do but getting there. The process was a bit weird at first, parting with accumulated treasures. But the further we got into it, the more we've come to realize that we have more junk than treasures and the treasures, most of them, have served their useful purpose which was to give us pleasure in this house.

We will find new treasures and make new memories somewhere else. And the old memories, we'll have forever.

I've been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing which is not only a great Charades title but it's provided a good deal of guidance on how to go about said tidying and decluttering. I look at everything differently now in terms of what is worth keeping and what can easily be discarded.

I've never even had a garage sale before. Ever. But this process is cathartic because I've had to look at every single thing I own - every paper clip, slip of paper, and unmatched sock. While I can now more easily identify things I don't need or should get rid of, without a sale such as this, it's easy to postpone getting rid of things and set them aside for "later" which never comes. It's almost easier to do it all at once that to get rid of things one at a time - this thing to Goodwill, that thing on Craiglist, the other thing to the garbage. While it's a ton of work to have an estate/moving sale, it's more efficient.

It's a good exercise, cleaning house. And it's a good book. If you know someone who could stand to get rid of stuff, buy that person this book. It's worth it.

Speaking of work, I'd rather avoid it but tomorrow is a big day and if I sit here too long Hubby is likely to put a price tag on me.