Part of the reason for my quick weekend trip is to be a critical eye and voice in the great purge of 2010. One of my closest friends has decided she needs to minimize her life, and part of that is to reduce her belongings. We spent a few hours yesterday and today opening boxes and making decisions about what should stay and what could go. While in theory this sounds easy, it's not.Have you ever picked something else and wondered why the heck you bought it? Or why have you held onto it for so long? It's hard to criticize your own decisions, even with years of perspective to use. And then there are those items that our parents have saved for us because they think we'll want them . . . baby blankets, christening dresses and the like. As we looked through boxes and bags we asked the question of what purpose was this now serving. Is it going to be used in the next month? six months? year? If not, why keep it? But then we came to items that are not so cut and dry . . . high school year books for example. I have all four of mine on a shelf in the basement. I can tell you I last looked at them to gather the guest list for my class reunion, but otherwise they just take up space, on a shelf, next to my dad's yearbooks. What am I ever going to do with his? Yet I can't bring myself to part with them either. Working through this process with her caused me to wonder what I needed to purge and what the results would be.
In the end we developed a system for our work. We used these categories: trash/recycle, donate (to a school or shelter), give away to friends, or put away where it actually belongs so that it will be used. Those will be my categories as I continue the purge and tackle two rooms in my basement next week
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