Good riddance...

I miss my old apartment. It was on a quiet street in the heart of our little town, with a gated courtyard and window boxes, hardwood floors and a big clawfoot tub. There was a back porch with room for my Nana's old porch swing and a fenced-in backyard, complete with wildflowers and a groundhog. It had a tiny, cheerful, sunny kitchen and high ceilings, old radiators and deep closets. It had low rent and an eccentric landlord. I fell in love twice there, out of love once. I found and lost a job I loved there, and then found another. I turned the music up and sang as loud as I could there, with no one to answer to. It had togetherness, it had solitude. It had my independence. It had almost everything. What it didn't have was...clutter.

We have been in this house for 3 years now. It is, on paper, almost the same as my beloved old place. It has all the quirks of an old house just as my former address did. And it will forever be a landmark for me, where we became a family of three. It is where I live. But I've yet to settle in, feeling like it's home. Take away the sound of my daughter's laughter (or tears) echoing through this place and it's just a place to retire to after a day at work. There is no room for my porch swing, no room for my carefree singing with no one listening. But there does seem to be plenty of room for...clutter. Lots and lots of clutter.

Every house has to have stuff. Frankly, I don't trust people who live in houses with no stuff. It's as if they are afraid of embracing who they are. Our things are a reflection of ourselves, what we love and want to keep near, and the quantity of those things is part of that reflection. And right now my little family has too much stuff, which says to me we have lost sight of what's important to us. We have just let anything and everything move in here with us for an extended stay, without any real invitation. It just appeared, without recollection of where it came from or which one of us brought it here. And in my last attempt to make this place less of a house and more of a home, I am giving a great number of our inconsiderate new guests the boot.

A friend has started a little undertaking called Get Rid of a Thousand Things. I am joining her cause. I am determined to get rid of anything that doesn't hold some sort of relevance to this family, anything that was perhaps welcome at one time but now is useless and just a space thief. I will periodically make brief updates on my progress, and maybe inspire another person to get on the clutter-reduction train. This house will be more home, less storage space. I will miss my old apartment less and learn to love this place more. There will be more room to dance around and sing like no one else is in the room. Hmmm...maybe those earplugs I found in a drawer I was cleaning will be a good gift for my neighbors...
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The list begins...so far the following have been evicted:
14 pairs of socks
8 bras
2 pairs of tights
6 pairs of underwear
8 pairs of flip flops
7 pairs of shoes
9 camisoles
1 pair of pajama pants
1 pair of shorts
1 old maternity top
2 tee shirts
17 sweaters
3 tank tops
17 shirts
3 pairs of jeans
4 pairs of pants
4 pairs of capris
4 jackets
7 skirts
2 scarves
2 belts
3 empty shoeboxes
1 pin
1 satchet
1 jar of shoe polish
24 magazines and catalogs = 152 things...