Nov 16, 2008

Have you ever wanted to....

Am I too old to go through a "stage"? Because I am. Going through one. A stage. At 56 years of age. Is that possible? For a few days now I have been just craving a "do over". Remember those when you were a kid? The game didn't go the way you wanted, so you asked for a "do over". Well, I want a do over! Oh, not with my life, like you're thinking. LOL I'm happily married. I adore my grown kids and my grandson is the best thing that's happened to me since... umm.... menopause! (Oh come'on - you know you were delighted when menopause came along and you didn't have deal with all that monthly aches and pains and all the trappings that came along with it!) No, my life is just fine, thank you. I love my life. But I have this really, really, REALLY strong craving to empty my house. Completely. Bye bye furniture. Bye bye dishes. Bye bye books. Bye bye art work. Bye bye linens. Bye bye a lifetime accumulation of things that suddenly feel like they should belong to someone else! And, in my head, how would I accomplish this??? Like this! Oh yeahhhh... Turn the house right upside down and SHAKE IT BABY, SHAKE IT! Empty it out! Contents on the front lawn and a big ol' post on Freecycle -- come and get it! Weird, huh?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I know someone who went through this at your age as well. We were talking about her collections once - beautiful knick-knacks from Germany and England, and lots of just...stuff collected over years, and she said to me, "If I had to do it all over again, I think I would just buy a big leather couch."

I say, get rid of as much as you can! Re-evaluate your collections - do you still collect stuff because you love it, or just because you have a collection? Is it still part of your identity?

Good luck! I still haven't hunted down Peter Walsh's audio CD - maybe I should do that!

Dixie said...

Joan.. I've been thinking about the same thing! I'm not quite ready to take the house and dump it upside down... but in getting prepared for retirement in a few years, I have started evaluating what I really want surrounding me - and what is worth passing on to my girls... I have 3 ya know. Our Rosary Society at church is having a "Turkey & Dressing" dinner and silent auction next weekend... I'm giving a few of my treasured objects to them for the auction. Little by little... if all else fails... I'll use your method, flipping the house!

Grammy said...

I love it. I would do that too. But I had to move 2 times in 05 so I already sold threw away and etc. Most of what we don't use is still packed I only unpacked what we need. so I could use some decor. But I hope to get a farm we bought at a tax sale and move next Aug. So I will stay packed. lol.

The Calico Quilter said...

That's one of the first things I did after I retired last year. When the dust had settled, I had a pile of Salvation Army donations as large as my car, taking up one side of the garage. And it felt GOOD!

We thinned out every time we moved in the late 80's and early 90's. But we've been in this house for 15 years and boy, does the stuff come creeping back in!