Story of (my) stuff.

Today my husband and I spent hours cleaning out the garage - and it's FAR from finished.  We got rid of a lot of stuff.  It's sitting out by the curb waiting on the garbage truck that comes in a few hours.  Of course there's a nice windy storm of the century brewing up right now that may blow our garbage all over the neighborhood...but at least it's not in our garage anymore.

Isn't it neat when you find stuff you thought you'd lost?  You're so excited - I literally heard myself squeal when I spotted my timbuk2 bag in the bottom of a box.  Hal found some iron tool and shouted "hey!"  Sarah was all over the place rediscovering toys she hadn't seen in a while...some she'd outgrown but still wanted to keep.  We found clothes we'd forgotten but would still love to wear, clothes we can't fit into anymore, and lots of things to give away.  Hal's SUV has several bags in the back of it now, headed straight to the Goodwill donation center tomorrow.

Ah.  Feels so good.  Too bad it doesn't happen very often.

See, Hal and I are messy, disorganized, pack-rats.  Plain and simple.  And we've moved a lot.  All over Athens in the beginning, then up and down the Eastern U.S.  When you're moving either quickly or with a toddler and 2 cats in tow, you tend to just throw crap in a box and make a run for it.  And if you're already disorganized to begin with, you get a hodgepodge in each box.  It's kind of like, what's behind door number # 2 Al?

Every once in a blue moon (like that old Southern adage?) we both get sick of the mess at the same exact time, and we actually make progress clearing out and cleaning up.  But there are still things we hang on to, despite knowing that we'll never actually use them.  Like Hal's bag 'o karate videos - VHS tapes!  We don't even have a VCR anymore!  Or my collection of coffee cups.  I will never have 40 people in my house at once all drinking coffee.  But yet, the stuff persists.

I even read a book last year about getting rid of stuff...called The Story of Stuff.

I rarely invite people inside our messy house.  Yet I'm a social person!  You think that would be enough of a motivator.  I don't know what the right combination is.  Today I was both sick, and tired, yet we worked for a long time and got rid of a lot of things.  I wish I knew what magic spell brought that on.  I'd be more apt to bippity boppity boo if I did.