We decided to finish a closet tonight that we had begun working on a few weeks back - we took care of the main part of the closet, but had not yet gotten to the shelves at the top of it. Here's what those shelves looked like earlier today:
And here are what they look like now - after we once again got rid of about 75+% of the former inhabitants:
Why did we spend years collecting things like this, that we never touched after they went in this closet, another closet, the corner of a room, a drawer, or shifted all over the house in an effort to keep it for one reason or another? We hope we are really figuring these reasons out. On one hand, guilt has been a big thing for us. We have gotten tons of gifts over the years that we have held on to long after the use of those gifts have stopped. We felt like if we got rid of these things, we would be doing something to the people that gave them to us. For anyone that now sees something they gave us has not been kept - whether it is in this post or prior - please don't take it as anything personal. We still love you all, we still appreciate the gift(s), but we have realized that hanging onto stuff just because we love the person who gave it to us, when we no longer love or have a use for that stuff anymore, just clutters up our lives.
On another side of that same coin, we have held on to things due to "memory" purposes. Things that meant something to Lauren and I for a brief moment in our relationship, and felt like we needed to keep something to remind us of those moments. Turns out, we don't. Above all, we have each other - which has kept numerous memories of days gone by alive. We've both gotten rid of hundreds - yes, hundreds - of things from our time together; cards, memorabilia from vacations or events cute emails we printed out, and a variety of other things. And these things, like many other things, were stowed away and never looked at again. Great job they did reminding us of those times in a closet and/or box. We have each other, we have two beautiful children that remind us of each other all the time, and we have a boatload of memories - so the stuff is gone.
There are other reasons we've kept all this stuff, some reasons better than others. Honestly, there are still things we are keeping with reasons better and worse than others - and over time we may decide those can go too. But, for now, we're happy getting rid of what we've gotten rid of, and we know this is a process that doesn't just end in a few more months, but is a lifestyle change.
Now... let's move on to what we got rid of from the closet shelves tonight. Here is everything, trash on the left, donations on the right:
The pièce de résistance here is the MSU Police sign, pictured better here:
Why was this kept? Because, in my mind, it was a great time and a great story. My senior year of college, a bunch of my friends and I went to the Notre Dame football game at Michigan State. After the game, there were so many barriers to direct traffic that we ended up driving in circles. So, when we finally tired of this, we drove up to a barrier, a few of us got out, and we just put the 10 foot long barrier into our van and drove off. To all those that followed us off campus through that barrier... you're welcome. When we got back to campus, we took the thing back to our dorm, and later that year I cut the middle of the barrier out so I could take it home. I had this on display in my old apartment, but it just never went up in our current house. I always thought I'd put it back up someday in a new house, when we had a basement. But, I think I've moved on now - and despite having a great story behind it, it was time to let it go. At least I'll always have the story.
And here are what they look like now - after we once again got rid of about 75+% of the former inhabitants:
Why did we spend years collecting things like this, that we never touched after they went in this closet, another closet, the corner of a room, a drawer, or shifted all over the house in an effort to keep it for one reason or another? We hope we are really figuring these reasons out. On one hand, guilt has been a big thing for us. We have gotten tons of gifts over the years that we have held on to long after the use of those gifts have stopped. We felt like if we got rid of these things, we would be doing something to the people that gave them to us. For anyone that now sees something they gave us has not been kept - whether it is in this post or prior - please don't take it as anything personal. We still love you all, we still appreciate the gift(s), but we have realized that hanging onto stuff just because we love the person who gave it to us, when we no longer love or have a use for that stuff anymore, just clutters up our lives.
On another side of that same coin, we have held on to things due to "memory" purposes. Things that meant something to Lauren and I for a brief moment in our relationship, and felt like we needed to keep something to remind us of those moments. Turns out, we don't. Above all, we have each other - which has kept numerous memories of days gone by alive. We've both gotten rid of hundreds - yes, hundreds - of things from our time together; cards, memorabilia from vacations or events cute emails we printed out, and a variety of other things. And these things, like many other things, were stowed away and never looked at again. Great job they did reminding us of those times in a closet and/or box. We have each other, we have two beautiful children that remind us of each other all the time, and we have a boatload of memories - so the stuff is gone.
There are other reasons we've kept all this stuff, some reasons better than others. Honestly, there are still things we are keeping with reasons better and worse than others - and over time we may decide those can go too. But, for now, we're happy getting rid of what we've gotten rid of, and we know this is a process that doesn't just end in a few more months, but is a lifestyle change.
Now... let's move on to what we got rid of from the closet shelves tonight. Here is everything, trash on the left, donations on the right:
The pièce de résistance here is the MSU Police sign, pictured better here:
Why was this kept? Because, in my mind, it was a great time and a great story. My senior year of college, a bunch of my friends and I went to the Notre Dame football game at Michigan State. After the game, there were so many barriers to direct traffic that we ended up driving in circles. So, when we finally tired of this, we drove up to a barrier, a few of us got out, and we just put the 10 foot long barrier into our van and drove off. To all those that followed us off campus through that barrier... you're welcome. When we got back to campus, we took the thing back to our dorm, and later that year I cut the middle of the barrier out so I could take it home. I had this on display in my old apartment, but it just never went up in our current house. I always thought I'd put it back up someday in a new house, when we had a basement. But, I think I've moved on now - and despite having a great story behind it, it was time to let it go. At least I'll always have the story.
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