TIME TO PURGE

I've been reading my friend, The Lazy Organizer's blog lately. Well, I always read it, but lately she has been talking about getting rid of stuff. She introduced me to the 100 thing challenge. Maybe a little extreme for me, but I love the living on less philosophy. I have always thought I was an anti-collector and had mostly just the basics. But then I quite grad school and went to school for graphic design. Let the collecting begin...

As an artist, you inherently have to keep ALL of your drawings. Not to mention ALL of the art supplies. Then I started working for Stampin' Up! Where, as an employee, you get LOTS and LOTS of art supplies for bargain basement prices. And you simply cannot refuse these supplies, because, you may need them one day and when would you ever get them at such a price again? Plus, as a product designer, you must have all of the product you designed for your portfolio in your possession. This equates to more and more and more stuff.

THEN, there is the collecting of paperwork. Do I really need to keep 5 years of bank statements and credit card statements? Don't the banks have copies of these? Plus years of my payment stubs, and mortgage payment receipts.

I can't tell you how much collecting more stuff went against my belief system, but the belief of who knows, the IRS may come knocking and I will need to dig out the IRS forms I filled out in 2001 wins. And lets face it, that 2001 form could have been done wrong, but don't they have a copy of it? If they don't, why are they contacting me in the first place?

When I packed up my house last August, I considered it a time to purge. I got rid of clothes, furniture, electronics, mason jars, an extra microwave (why do I have an extra microwave? Actually, I had 2! extra microwaves), a set of 4 turned tabled legs that were sent to me by mistake ( I was always going to make something with them. I had them for 5 years), my bed, etc.

But, I kept the 8 large tubs of Stampin' Up! Supplies. I really don't stamp, but I thought someone in my family might enjoy using my stuff. I kept the 2 tubs of my art supplies. I kept ratty old towels (for my dog). I kept skirts, shirts, and shoes I haven't worn in 3 years. I kept t-shirts from the 90's because, I reasoned, they are good to paint the house in. And I kept 3 bar stools, which I really love, but were too tall for the bar I had in my house and will probably be to tall for a bar in any future house I may have, sigh...they are really cool.

So, after moving 5 times since September, and realizing most of my stuff is still in boxes and I don't miss it, I've decided to really purge. However, here is the problem. I want to keep my books. I have probably missed them the least, except, I love them the most. I have always wanted a library and find tremendous value in books. I don't want a kindle, I don't want all of my favorite magazines to only be available on the web. I love the smell of a book, the feel of a book. I value books. I know I can go to the library and I do, but I want my own.

I want this...
Admittedly, the books are half of my boxes right now. But I want them, and I'm going to get more. You can't stop me. But the rest can go.