There are three sentences you will NEVER, EVER hear me say again. They are; “Wait Brian! We could sale that! Don’t throw it away!”
The middle sentence mocks me now. “We could sale that!” BWAH! HA! HA! HA!!!!! Yes, we could sale it…for a whopping TWENTY FIVE cents! And when the weekend is all said and done, we will have averaged .07 cents a hour for all the time we spent preparing and holding a garage sale! But we were naive! I was naive! Let me start at the beginning…
Since the last weekend of May, Brian and I have been on a war path to purge our home of all the “stuff” we don’t need. We have given up almost every weekend these last two months to purging closets, drawers, cupboards, the kitchen, you name it. And surprisingly, so many people have asked us if we are moving because why would anyone in their right mind do ALL that work! Well, we aren’t moving. Instead, we have wanted to do this purge since our first big trip to Thailand with the kids–that was three years ago!
We had been living in the jungle of Thailand for six weeks. We lived so simply, and here I was nervous we were going to have a hard time without all our stuff. But turns out, I didn’t even miss our stuff. Not only did I not miss it, I didn’t need most of it. Brian and I decided that at some point, we were going to get rid of all the “stuff”. It felt like it was time this summer.
We’ve been working on letting go of systems we’ve outgrown in our family and business. We’ve been intentional about sorting through different aspects of how we run the business, and pruning away old life to make way for new life. It felt like we needed to not only do this on a mental level, but physical level too. So we started with our bedroom upstairs, ended up spending ELEVEN hours purging it–finding all my pregnancy clothes hidden in the back of the closet from seven years ago! Every weekend, we worked our way through each closet, drawer, cabinet in our home, feeling lighter and lighter as we went. The last weekend of July was our official cut off date and garage sale weekend. We decided we’d spend that last week purging what we dreaded most, the BASEMENT.
We hauled EVERY THING in our basement out into the street. Insane, right?! I’m going to show you real photos of documentation, but you aren’t allowed to judge! 🙂
And that’s not all!
You are probably thinking, “GOOD LORD! How big is your basement?!” It’s pretty BIG! But, here’s the thing…we never see our basement, so we just stick stuff down there and out of sight, out of mind BUT not out of body! I think we’ve felt mentally constipated, knowing our basement is getting more and more stuffed. Yes, we run our business, homeschool and family out of our home, BUT this much “stuff” is too much! Brian and I felt like we’d physically, emotionally, spiritually feel the difference if we set our intentions to purge even the areas we don’t have to look at every day.
This is one of my favorite photos because we had finally finished emptying the WHOLE basement, clearing it ALL out to the street. And we felt pretty good about ourselves. There was this five minute window of feeling like “Yeah, we are the BOMB!”
And then reality set it in the sixth minute, as we looked at each other and said “No What!”
We purged. We sorted. We dug. We tossed. We said goodbye too. And I can honestly say that 75% of our basement stuff is now gone. (That means we have 75% of new space for life to bring us NEW life, NEW adventures, both physically and mentally!) For example, I’ve been holding on to boxes and boxes of all my rewrites for my first book, Beauty Restored, that was published TEN YEARS AGO! Just the physical experience of dumping those files, all that weight, into the garbage felt like I’d had Colon Hydrotherapy! Gross mental image, but I felt EMPTIED!
I’ll tweet a photo once the basement is organized with all the special crates and shelves we bought! (which officially caused us to lose money on our garage sale)
But I know why people don’t do this more often. One, they don’t need to bond in that special way you do with your spouse. For real, Brian and I have not argued that much in so long! We argued in the basement, in the driveway, in the front yard, in the open street. It was a major Love Fest going on here!
We purged our basement on Wednesday. By the time Friday night came, the eve of our garage sale, nothing was sorted or priced. I was an emotional wreck, covered in dust and cobwebs. The newspaper ad we listed said that our garage sale started at 9am, but people came screaming in like vultures at 7:30am!
Two of the sweetest ladies from one of our CONFIDENCE Workshops came! That was a SERIOUS HIGHLIGHT to the whole experience.
And people were pretty impressed that we accepted Visa and Mastercard, not to mention autographed copies of my book! 🙂
But garage sales have potential to bring out craziness in you! By Sunday, you’ve had people haggling you for lower prices since Saturday morning. And all of a sudden you start to care about your junk way more than you should. For example, the lady who wanted the glass, well, plastic, vase that I got with a floral arrangement for .75 cents instead of $1. And for some reason, I’m no longer willing to bend and we are going back and forth over .25cents. It was in that moment that I had an “out of body” experience and saw myself trying to get .25 more cents and officially knew I’d lost my mind!!!
The best part though was when we counted up the money we made on Saturday night, and the total was $590! Yes, $590. And Pascaline looks at me and says, “Wow mom, that’s crazy that all that work only made you $590 when you make $500 in a 30 minute Mini Session.” The reality of what she said hit me right between the eyes, and i fell into oblivious laughter and tears!!!
So never, EVER, EVER again will you hear me say; “Wait Brian! We could sale that! Don’t throw it away!”
From now on, the D word rules! DONATE!
All in all, I’ve got no regrets! I had to go through the Garage Sale experience to know it’s okay to donate or toss stuff that you feel tempted to hang onto. My mama tried to tell me! If only I would have just listened! 🙂 But what surprised me the most is how EXHAUSTING the whole ordeal was. At times I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I’d be sorting through stuff for HOURS and the stuff in the street would look exactly the same! All I could do was keep my head focused on what was in front of me and keeping going. You are going to think I’m crazy, but we’ve actually been working with Fay (our business coach) to “seek challenge” this summer with the purpose of finding what needs strengthening in our home, business, overall wellness. Instead of waiting for trauma or crisis to force us into a corner. Seeking challenge, exhausting, but I can say that I’m building some new mental muscles–getting to practice and work on some things without crisis breathing down my neck. That feels pretty good.
xoxo,
m
p.s. But the purging of our home is OFFICIALLY done, yes, that was worth EVERY MINUTE! I even have an empty kitchen drawer! No JOKE!
p.s.s. Starting at 5pm PST TONIGHT, we have the awesome honor of having Michele Anderson from Pinkle Toes Photography join us on the SOARORITY FORUM Ask & Learn! Check out Michele’s beautiful work, and write down a bunch of questions for her! She is coming to SOARORITY to empower you and answer as many questions as possible! Yeah! Thank you so MUCH Michele!!!!
Last p.s. 🙂
We have a few spots left in each of our upcoming Fall CONFIDENCE Workshops in Seattle, Washington DC, Sacramento and Dallas! I think Seattle only has ONE spot left! REGISTER TODAY to grab your spot! Start your FALL with renewed creativity and confidence in photography like NEVER BEFORE!
Congrats! What a wonderful feeling. We’re just about done with our purging, which has been over 3 years in the making! Back in 2006 my mom and stepdad died and my sister and I had to empty the house. My husband and I were living in our first apartment (a wee little thing) and so we had to get a storage unit to fit it all. In the last 3 years we’ve moved 4 times (finally bought a house) and each time we moved, I was able to let more stuff go. It’s especially hard to let go of things that belonged to loved ones no longer with us. BUT that is exactly how photography has helped me. I realized it’s the memories I treasure most. If I had to choose between the big old chair from my moms house (in a style that will never fit with our decor) or the photos of my mom and me on vacation, I would most definitely choose the photos! So, as I’ve learned to take better photos, it’s easier for me to ditch the stuff we no longer use. After all, I have the best treasures: my own memories, and photos to remind me later on. It’s such a fantastic feeling 🙂
Thanks for sharing BreAnna. I treasure the email you sent to me last month. You are such a strong woman with all that you’ve endured. And you are right, photography is an amazing tool to help us keepsake those we love. Thank you for sharing your life in today’s comments. So blessed by you, my dear.
The timing of this post and the book I started last night was incredible. Have any of you read the “Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin? It’s a New York Times bestseller, and people tell me all the time how much I’d love her. So I started her book last night, and i LOVE it! And can you believe it, the chapter called “January” is all about purging for more energy mentally and physically. It was so fun to read her own experience of de-cluttering! She writes; “One study suggested that eliminating clutter would cut down the amount of housework in the average home by 40 percent.” I can def say that this first week of no clutter has been a much easier home to maintain and less of an energy drain!
Anyone else de-cluttering this summer?!
xoxo,
m
Hi Me Ra!!
What an inspiring post!!! I come from a family of pack rats and am a pack rat myself. Recently though, we had some problems with one of the rooms in our small place and will need to move out for a little while. Through this process, we’ve needed to get rid of a lot of stuff. It is SO hard, but it feels so good after. And like you said, I don’t even miss the stuff! In fact, I feel so much better! When everything is all done and we can move back in, we envision a much more sparse and neat space.
It has been a very stressful month with our home and also with some health issues. I am trying to look to the light at the end of the tunnel and imagine what life will be like in a few months!
Thanks for your awesome post and for sharing your journey with us!!
Garage sales are such a good way to take a snap shot of your life…where you are coming from. My husband and master of disaster prevention taught very early on that I don’t have to put my self humuliation as I trek my things from the basement, attic and cubby’s and wholes (like under my bed) to the curb. Save your self hummuliation, time, exhaustion and just DONATE IT! RIGHT ya RIGHT…but I think when you actually take the time to sort and reminise a little (well not over those god awful orange crochet things someone with a sense of humor call pot holders) but taking notice of what you bought and how it didnt get used for the purpose you thought you would use it. It really helps you to save money by thinking before you buy and really planning out what you need. Sometimes we buy and buy and buy and dont take the time to really be thoughtful and plan our organization or Decorating…
I think you just endured a HUGE life learning experience and thank you for sharing. Now show us some of your AWESOME new organizing skills…I need some tips for my office. Wish I had a magic wand. I have donated and donated…but I just dont seem to have the knack for picking up great shelving or organizing “THINGS”. I walk into those containers stores and my eyes glaze over…I don’t think I have ever bought anything because I think I’m scared. Maybe its of the organization? But really I think its because the idea of trekking these terribly boring looking orginizational cubes to the street really get me, and I know I have to use them…but how??! I need Nate to come to my home office:) Thanks for Sharing Mera!! Can’t wait to see your new basement in spotless organization.
LOVED this! I grew up in one house for 18 years before moving to Tacoma to go to college. It happened to be a large working farm (1600 acres!) as well…so everything was always saved because, of course (!), there would be another use for it! My husband grew up in a military family and moved back and forth across the country and out of the country every few years for his dad’s job. They did not hold onto things for another use. When we married and I started moving all of my stuff into his house, he would come home from work each day and the look on his face…let’s just say…was not one of excitement and joy about my stuff! 🙂 We had covered all the important topics prior to committing our lives to each other, however, the conversation of STUFF was never one that was mentioned as an important conversation. Clearly, this was a meeting of Mr. Minimalist and Mrs. Memory Keeper!!
We can laugh about it now…but that week of moving went from la-di-da to a bit worrisome for me as I was able to see he was not at all excited about my extra stuff! We haven’t had a garage sale, though I TOTALLY tell him I want to hang onto certain things because “I could sell it!”
In the back of my mind I always think I am going to have a garage sale, but never really get around to doing it because I know he dreads the idea…Just a couple of weekends ago my neighbor announced that he thought he might have made $3 an hour holding a garage sale at his house! Yikes! So, between his proclamation of $3/hour and yours of .07/hour, I think I am letting go of the garage sale idea and now need to tackle the pile I have and donate it! This makes my husband very happy!!
Thanks for your great post about purging!! I am definitely working on it this summer! 🙂
WOW! I cannot believe the timing of this post! Last week when you were talking about purging I NEEDED to know more! Because I am really needing to do it. I have stuff that I’ve accumulated thinking that I will use it someday when I am married and when I have children. That someday still is not here. I am getting ready to move and cannot take it all with me. AND I REFUSE to pay for a storage unit! Before I ever start I am grieving STUFF! That is so wrong! My friend suggested last night taking pictures of some of the items that I really don’t want to get rid of but should. I thougt that was a pretty good idea. We’ll see how I do with in the weeks before my garage sale.
I love how God uses you, your insight and your expierences! So helpful to me and so many others!!! Love it!
~IS that a FIRE HYDRANT for sale!!LOLOLOLOLO!!
Good for you,going to show my hubby this because if he says to me one more time “but wait,we can have a garage sale” i will SELL him!!;))
much love,
Natasha
I am so living this RIGHT NOW!!! We just moved out of our house and we are in a 2-3 week limbo until our new house is available, so we have most of our stuff in storage right now. This last month has been spent going through things, starting with our basement (which we had used just for storing our stuff) and we filled up two 8×10 storage units with things just from our basement. I couldn’t believe it!!! I feel that we have too much “stuff” as well, and even though we have already thrown away, donated, consigned, and saled stuff away…I want to go through it again when we empty it out and get rid of it, if it is not needed in our lives. Unfortunately, this post didn’t come soon enough to warn me not to bother with the garage sale as we are doing that for two days starting tomorrow morning. 🙂 Thank you for the wonderful blog post…I want to just plain donate all of my future unnecessary items. It is WAY easier than hanging on to it for a years, cluttering up my life, only to make a few pennies off of it.
bravo! i am so happy for you and incredibly jealous. i so resonate with that feeling of my stuff beginning to crumble in around me. at times i’ve wished i could just take our family away for a week and let a perfect stranger come in and throw everything away. we dont’ have a basement…but our garage…well….let me just say that we couldn’t park our car in it if our life depended on it.
so…congrats. don’t spend your $590 all in one place. 🙂
We have been doing the less is more for a few years now and it is amazing how much less time it takes to take care of your stuff when there is less stuff. Our dumping ground is our garage so now once a year I go through it and get rid of even more stuff that I have not used that last year. What you realize is you have more time to spend with relationships than with taking care of stuff. That book sounds good, I will have to check it out. Now you can enjoy the rest of the summer and the great weather we are having. Love to you all!
That was an impressive undertaking – congrats to your whole family! I attended the DC workshop last Fall and had to leave early because my Mum went in the hospital. She has since passed away (April, three days after her 80th birthday which we celebrated in style!) so I have boxes. While I’ve gone through many, there are many left. One thing I’ve done is take photographs of the things that evoke the memories when I really don’t want to keep the thing. I think digital imagery gives us great freedom to let the physical thing go and keep a few bits and bytes on a CD when we want to walk down memory lane. The things don’t hold the memories but seeing them does… This has allowed me to let go of so many things. It’s been very helpful. Peace and congrats to all! Great job!
I’m a type A person with “slight” OCD tendancies….okay, maybe more than “slight” but whose keeping score. 🙂 Anyway, I always felt like my yard sales had to look like the sales floor of Macy’s and always had everything laid out perfectly. I drove myself nuts cleaning the tables up during the sale and would almost be mad at the customers for messing up everything. During our last sale I decided it wasn’t worth it and now every few months I head to Goodwill. The kids start school next week and I CAN’T WAIT to get into their rooms and purge the summers “junk”. Everyone has to live through one monsterous yard sale to realize it’s not worth it! 🙂 But, you have a fun story to tell….and that’s worth more than money
LOVE hearing all of your own journeys! I just pinged Leslie Jacobs to see if she’d share some of her expert advice on organizing. She was a guest on The Nate Berkus Show last year, and I FELL IN LOVE with this woman! So fingers crossed, she’ll pop in on the comments today!
xoxo,
m
I love, love, love this post! I feel exactly the same way. We are also in the exact same process although doing it much more slowly as we can’t seem to find a big chunk of time. Our basement is the same way ‘large and out of sight, out of mind’…but it really isn’t ‘out of mind’ as you said. I love how you moved everything to the street…leaving you no choice but to finish. I’ve always said NO to garage sales. Things go right to the trash or to donations. 🙂
I am going through this exact thing right now and the debate of sell vs. donate has been playing in my mind as my pile grows. I hate the time I’m wasting with this junk vs. time with my daughter. I do get a rush out of getting this stuff out of my house though. My fave book is Clear your clutter with Feng Shui. It inspires me to get rid of stuff every time I read it. Even thought it’s out of sight it still weighs us down. Perfect timing, thank you for sharing. I will be making a huge donation! 🙂 Love you guys!
What a hilarious post! Mental constipation…omg
When BOTH of my computers went in for maintenance 2 weeks ago, I had FOUR workdays without computers. It forced me to face my piles. It IS mentally exhausting. I go stir crazy because the impulse to “flee” and “avoid” making decisions about this stuff is so strong. I told my husband, the reason the piles are there is DUE to the fact that I deferred a decision about each thing. And it’s excruciating to sit down and force yourself to make decisions about a whole GROUP of them!
I also hired a professional organizer who was UH-MAZing. She got into my brain and organized my office for how I function. Now, I’m helping my husband purge & organize his 1,000 sq. ft. workshop/garage!!
My favorite question is “IF I got rid of this, and I someday needed one, how hard would it be get one?”
And lastly, the best thing about getting rid of stuff, is that if you do it right, you end up completely surrounded ONLY with the things that you truly LOVE. Imagine that!!
fyi: We have an AWESOME Ask & Learn with the Pinkle Toes Photographer!! Starts at 5pm PST TONIGHT! See you there!
xoxo,
m
Bravo!
I am a child of a real live hoarder. My mom was/is the guilty party. My dad hated it. He would try to get rid of things but she just couldn’t. To this day I can’t stay at her house when I visit her in Missouri, I have to get a hotel. It makes me itchy.
When I was back there 2 years ago for my father’s funeral, we couldn’t find his military papers allowing him to have his Military Funeral Honors. 🙁 I’m still upset with my mother about that… that she would allow “stuff” to get so out of hand that my father was denied this.
It’s sad to see the value she puts on things over the life she could have in a clean, uncluttered home. My aunt’s home is worse, however.
Anyway, I am so proud of you. I know that you will enjoy your family and home more now. Keep up the good work!
PS… I agree, donate! 🙂
I, for one, love garage sales….going, more than having one, for sure. They are like treasure hunts! Even my son gets excited about going. For the small amount of his allowance, he can find all kinds of unexpected goodies. I mean, where else can I get a brand new picnic basket for a wedding gift, Batman DVDs that score points with my son, a book that will help me become a millionaire (WITH personal notes from someone I completely admire)…all for price I would have paid for one!…AND get to spend time with two women that bring life to this heart of mine! It was a joy to see you and Brian both, lady! 🙂
P.S. Brian has the stealth of Batman himself! I never even saw him with a camera!
You have inspired me to start purging!!! Probably not in a way of a garage sale but definitely donating for sure. The overwhelmed look on your face Saturday morning was priceless!
Love you girl!!
Sue
Serendipity. Favourite word for a reason. Seriously. How weird and cool that you’ve been working on this at the same time as I. Strangely though, I’ve been preparing myself mentally and this weekend while my husband is away I’m getting rid of as much as I can. I’m going to surprise him with a purged house upon his return. Wish me luck! 😀
brian….as i look over these images again…i’m struck by how effortlessly you span the piles of stuff. the glasses, the black t-shirt, the look of sheer disgust…incredibly manly. it’s amazing…AND inspiring. just wanted to put that out there. 🙂
After halfway starting a basement clean out a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had soooo many pressing things to do that I just couldn’t get back to it!! 🙂 After reading your post, I feel stronger. Monday will be the day! I think the reason I procrastinate is because it is so emotional and stressful to decide to let go of things….even if they have not been touched in years. It’s that old fear that as soon as you part with it, you will most definitely need it. And you know what, sometimes that does happen, but lo and behold, you just make do with something else!
In regards to whether or not to have a garage sale, it only took having one to convince me never to do it again. It’s just too painful to haggle with a customer over whether something is worth 50 cents….especially when that something was an accent piece in your living room the day before. 🙂
Looking forward to meeting you and Brian at the Washington DC Workshop this Fall!
Girl, you are more woman than I for tackling that. I gave up garage sales years ago for all the reasons you just said. The D word reigns around here, yet we are still sifting through boxes that have been tucked away in the basement since we moved in over 4 years ago. And it’s starting to weigh on me. This is it, this is the year that we finally declutter from the move!
Yay for you!!!!
I have to say I’m a little jealous that you are THROUGH it. I wrote a blog post in Feb. of 2010 about how God was tugging on my heart to purge and live simply (http://lovemy3ms.blogspot.com/2010/02/simplicity.html) and little by little we are working towards it, but I wish I was in your place in the process 🙂 I AM comforted to know that God laid it on your hearts 3 years ago though, because I’m just 1/2 way through that time frame.
I hope that, now that you’ve spent your summer weekends working on your home, you can really relax and breathe deeply and have some good down time to rejuvenate before the school year starts again.
Love you much!!!!
MeRa! This made me laugh! I had almost the exact same experience when we moved to Ireland! I think we made under $200 for all that work! Anyway, thanks for sharing all your experiences with us in a real, honest way. You are dear to teach us through you. xo Christiana