Hoarders

My new favorite TV show is Hoarders. It's on A&E, and exposes peoples homes who have way, way too much stuff and a boat load of emotional baggage to go along with it. The disorder is fascinating and the show truly intends to help those people break through their emotional patterns that are causing them to accumulate so much stuff without disposing of what they no longer need, along with the chronic disorganization that goes along with having more than you have space for.

I love that our house isn't any bigger, and I try to embrace minimalism and getting rid of things as new things come in. Every time I watch Hoarders I want to give or throw something away. So over new year's weekend, I did just that.

When we moved here, I started putting things aside in a yard sale pile. We have lived here about a year and a half and had a mound of trash bags in our basement. I can't honestly imagine we would get much for the old easter basket, clothes, fake flowers, and other odds and ends if we were to have a yard sale. I also despise actually having a yard sale. After every one I have had, I vowed not to ever have one again, and we live in a terrible location for a yard sale.

As I was putting away our Christmas gifts, I started bagging things up for the yard sale pile. Out with the old, in with the new. It occurred to me that we were probably never going to actually have a yard sale, so I called the Christian County Family Violence Center and asked what kinds of things they could use. She went through a whole list of things they need. Although the Christian County center doesn't have a website. This is the link to Springfield's Family Violence Center, and they have a wish list that is very similar to the things the Christian County group needs. Because I had so many other odds and ends, she suggested I bring everything to their thrift store and they would sort what they would sell in the store and what the women needed.

I filled a box full of personal products and cleaning products from my couponing days. After sorting through the basement and every closet in our house, I filled twenty trash bags of things to donate. I also filled four boxes of Ben's things to send to a friend expecting twins. It feels so good to have all of the closets and cabinets cleaned out.

When we go through our storage in the basement of Pam's shop, I'm sure we will have even more. I also didn't go through the garage because it's so cold. This fall we are going to go through the Christmas stuff and come up with even more from there.