2 posts tagged “clutter”

I'm feeling really overwhelmed right now. Sean and I need to merge our offices so that we can start planning the baby's room. Sean has already cleaned out a lot of stuff out of his office (which was a huge deal for him - he is a huge packrat), but I have yet to start mine. As I look around, I see so much clutter and junk, it's hard to find a place to start. I know we still have lots of time to do this, but time has a tendency to move really fast when it comes to this sort of thing. I don't want it to be a last minute job - we'll have lots of other things to do then. I'm hoping to spend some time over Easter weekend cleaning out my office. We probably won't be fully merged by Sunday night, but I intend to at least get a lot of the clutter out of here.

As I look at all the clutter I get really angry. I can't believe all the junk I've managed to accumulate. A lot of it is stuff that other people have given me over the years. Some of it was useful at one time and has simply served its purpose. A lot of it however is just the kind of stuff people give as gifts that end up sitting in people's homes until they do a major clutter purge or have a yard sale. It makes me feel guilty because I know people give gifts with the greatest of intentions, and from a place of thoughtfulness. But sometimes, I just want to tell people to stop giving me anything. At least now with the baby on the way, people will be more concentrated on buying him or her gifts. Getting rid of that stuff at the end of its usefulness is also socially acceptable. The baby either just won't fit in the clothes, or is too old for that toy.

Part of me just wants to wimp out and call my mother and beg her to come up and help me with this. The other part of me wants to accomplish this on my own. I know my mom is busy this weekend so if I want it done now, I'm on my own.

Maybe I need to shame myself by posting before, during and after pictures to keep myself moving. Hmm...

Yesterday I participated in our neighbourhood association's inaugural street sale. The flyer we got said it started at 8AM, but when I was walking Leia a little after 7AM, I only saw one family setting theirs up. I guess my neck of the woods isn't a hardcore yard sale kind of crowd. By the time I got back and got my stuff out, a couple more had sprouted. Sean also reported seeing more sales on other streets while he did his coffee run. One group of women who visited my sale were quite disgusted that the neighbours across the street were only just setting up at 8:45AM. "All the best stuff is gone by then!" they sneered. Then they left without buying anything, even though I had lots of good stuff left. Just not good stuff to them. Whatever.

I'm always surprised at the stuff that sells at yard sales and the stuff that doesn't. I had some purses out, and one in particular was touched by almost every visitor to the sale. But no one wanted to cough up the money for it, or make me a counter-offer. I had a box of never-used wineglasses, a brand-new cheese knife and tray set, and a nice wooden wall shelf that nobody bought. Yet, every single stinky candle and most of the crappy bath stuff I put out was sold. I probably priced the "good stuff" too high, but I took any counter-offer I was given, so I didn't make as much as I had hoped. This served as a reminder that a yard sale's main objective is not to make money, but get rid of stuff you no longer need in your life.

One guy came by about halfway through, looked at my stuff for about thirty seconds and told me it was all "girl stuff". I told him my husband was a packrat and wouldn't get rid of anything (which is pretty much true). I had an old man ask me if I had any stamps or war medals from Grandpa, (which I did not). I told him my grandpa must have given them to his good grandchildren. This was after the guy was trying to flirt with me by saying he saw my red hair from a distance, but he had been drinking the night before. I told him that I hoped he wasn't seeing two of me. I'm not sure if he liked me much, but he made me laugh. Silly old men are great!

I gave up after about three hours. I sold over half of the stuff, but since it was a small sale, what was left was starting to look pathetic, and people were just driving or walking by without looking. Everyone was also trying to buy the tables I had the stuff on, which were not for sale. I am proud of myself because when I boxed everything back up, I took it straight to the car to be donated to Goodwill. No sneaking back into my house, clutter!