Purging
My dad's assistant came over yesterday to help me get my office organized. Things have gotten hectic and disarrayed between starting my business, bringing over all my dad's files and temporarily taking over the finances on my real estate business. My idea was to take the closet in the office which was a jumbled mish-mash of all things and turn it into a supply room, freeing up space on my floor and in my file cabinet where I was storing some supplies but really needed the space for files.
It turned out amazing. Everything looks so clean and crisp. She is going to bring the storage paraphanalia today but I now have a clear desk (inside and out. Really. There are very few things in my drawers), a cleaned out closet, and about ten bags waiting to be picked up by the thrift store. How did we do it?
- She made me throw away my grandfather's wallet. My grandfather died in 1989. The wallet was filled with his medical cards including one about a pacemaker which I did not even remember he had. Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I've been holding onto including a couple of files for when I settled his estate. Those are in line at my shredder now.
- She made me throw away the unopened erasers from Bouchart Gardens and similarly unusable souvenirs from when my mom and I went to Canada in the early 90's. She did let me keep our tour group photo including one of us white water rafting where everyone but me is waving because I was certain that if I so much as breathed the whole raft would tip over. I had a whole bag of stuff from that trip that was completely unnecessary. Gone.
- She told me that I have enough notepads to last the rest of my life and beyond. She told me that I am no longer allowed to keep those free pads that the real estate agents leave. But, huh? They're free! She said that having a complete stranger's face taking up most of a notepad is not a good use of space. I pointed out that I actually knew one of the real estate agents on one of the pads. I did not win the argument.
- She says it is okay to have a collection as long as you have a place to display the collection all in one place. I do not consider myself to be a collector of snow globes but I have in the past picked them up here and there if they are inexpensive and somehow unique. I then strewned them all over my bookshelves. They are now tastefully arranged together at the top of one of the shelves.
- We established a "memorabilia" bin to go in the garage. So I found a terribly bad poem in a camp newsletter when I was probably nine years old. We took the front page of the newsletter and the page with my poem, stapled them together and put them in the memorabilia bin. We also put in all the plaques and certificates I have gotten for volunteering that I would love to throw away but can't. My grandmother's high school diploma and stuff like that will go in there as well.
- Books should be displayed in the bookshelf. I have some unique and collectible books that I have been keeping in my desk drawer. Silly.
- Disney is rich because their merchandise is everywhere. There is no reason for me to keep every piece of paper that says Disney on it because someday my niece and nephew might want it. That includes the huge Beauty and the Beast poster that has been sitting in the closet. When my niece and nephew get to an age when they want posters, it will not be for Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast is old school.
Her basic philosophy is that there should be a place for everything. After she left I had to work but I would take a break every once in awhile to reward myself by looking in a closet and finding stuff to give away. Purging is so much fun. This has been the start of something really great and we are going to continue next week with all the rest of my closets.