Wha'cha gonna do with all that junk?

In case you haven't heard, we had a garage sale a few weeks ago. We had SO much stuff to get rid of. We have been in this house for 3 years. My rule is (besides holiday & camping stuff) if we haven't used it in 3 years - it's out! Plus with Tristan being too big and long for a lot of his baby stuff, we had all that to get rid of also. Baby swings, and bouncys, car seats and carriers plus all baby clothes up to 12 months. Old Halloween costumes, bed sheet sets, books books and more books. It was a big project. We had over 6 tables and 2 clothes racks of stuff. We went through each room and cleaned out all the closets and cabinets. We spent over a week in the attic alone. I kept thinking to myself. What is up here? If we never use it why do we have it? It was really starting to drive me crazy. All of the stuff pushed both cars out into the driveway. Bags and boxes of stuff were just lying around for weeks.

We had a lot of people in and out of the house while we were working on this project. People who were more than willing to share their opinion with us about what we were doing. There were more than a few who expressed disagreements with our task. They couldn't understand why we were getting rid of "this" or "that". "But that is a perfectly good.....!" or "Didn't Aunt Sue give that to you?" and then ending with " You really should keep that."

No, I really shouldn't. I can't keep everything that anyone has ever given us. At least I don't think I should have too. If I am not using or enjoying it, then what is the purpose of keeping it? Plus we move every few years. Which means that each time we move our possessions are weighed and if we go over our limit we have to pay out of pocket. We don't have the luxury of keeping something "just in case".

What amazed me the most were peoples opinions about 'stuff'. We really do have strong attachments to things. We also have guilt that comes with letting stuff go. Like we are letting other people down somehow. I am sure I can speculate that these feeling and opinions are based on how and in which class we were raised and what decade we came of age. Maybe my opinion is colored by the fact that I have never wanted for anything. I have the luxury of letting things go.

In the end it was a remined how much this family is loved and supported. Most of the stuff in the garage was given to us by others. They were used well and loved much.