Meander

Although I have spent several years as a consumer and a collector: I have bought gadgets, stored party supplies in the basement, and built a rather extensive collection of placemats and Christmas decorations, I am slowly turning over a new leaf.

I am trying to live more simply. This is a personal choice; just for me. It feels good to let go of things that I don’t need and won’t use. My house is plenty big for three people and yet there are times when our stuff leaves me feeling not just crowded, but frankly claustrophobic. I am taking a variety of steps to improve this. One step, as regular readers will know, was the yard sale in July.

Then I came across this from Suze Ormon:
“Financially speaking, I can't make any sense out of garage sales. You have to invest a lot of time to hold one, when you could simply take all your unwanted stuff down to the local charity (or even ask them to come cart it away for you) and claim the donation as a tax deduction. Do you really want to spend a weekend holding a garage sale-with no guarantee you will clear out everything you don't want-when you can spend an hour or two gathering up your stuff and making a donation whose tax value will likely exceed the value of your garage sale's proceeds?”

I get her point, but for my purposes I respectfully disagree. I couldn’t just immediately pack everything away and take it to St. Vincent DePaul’s. I wanted to get rid of the stuff that I accumulated without a second thought, things that I purchased with hard-earned money that I used once and never again. To pack it up in a car and ship it immediately off to someone else would be perpetuating the exact need for instant gratification that filled up my drawers and closets in the first place. Instead, I put effort into going through the house and making decisions about items that weren’t necessary to a happy, fulfilled existence. Sitting in the yard all day with strangers pawing through my belongings left me with plenty of time to focus on my new goal of removing the chokehold my “stuff” was beginning to have on my life. By the time I finally packed the car to donate the remaining items, I was exhausted! ... but I also felt a sense of freedom and accomplishment. I have spent all summer letting the question “Will this end up in next year’s yard sale?” guide my purchases. However, lest you think this goal is anything less than a work in progress please note that I bought two back issues of Sassy magazine on eBay the same week as the sale.