Tag Archives: purging

The big pre-Rummage + pre-John purge

I’ve been delaying a little on the tales of this year’s gigantic Rummage sale up in Winnetka, and the beautiful haul of stuff I brought back with me, but before diving in I have to talk about the purging that happened right beforehand.

The last time we officially purged our apartment was back in January, and it was time to have another go-’round for two reasons:

1) Rummage was coming up and I needed to practice the “out with the old” part before the “in with the new” hit us hard.

2) My brother-in-law John was about to move in with us for the summer, necessitating an emptying/reorganizing effort in the 2nd bedroom.

My mom always used to say that guests are a great excuse to get organized and to clean, and I concur. If John hadn’t come, who knows how long some of this stuff may have stuck around, generally loitering in a useless sort of fashion? But John came, and the stuff was put into its proper place: bags destined to be carried out the door!

There’s no feeling like walking old stuff out the door–it’s like winning a race.

Not that I’ve ever won a race . . . the whole ‘running’ thing never clicked for me. But it’s what I imagine winning a race might feel like.

Anyway! Our first mission was to clear out half of the closet I use. Remember when I color-coordinated it earlier this year? This is what it looked like:

The right hand half, destined for John’s use, housed a ton of my clothes and at least three guitars. Everything needed to find a new place. Time to make a big pile on the futon!

I love big piles on the futon. There’s no better way to feel instantly productive than to yank a lot of stuff off hangers and throw it about.

Over the course of an evening (make that two) I purged a good amount of clothing, and put into storage (i.e. large plastic boxes inna stack) anything that was too wintry and heavy for the warm season, and anything I didn’t think my pregnant self could fit into for much longer.

Of course, we had to create this clothing storage space by purging what was already in other boxes. We opened two of uncertain contents and found . . .

. . . a horse!

Goodbye, beautiful plastic horse that I loved for so many years.

My husband headed up this box-emptying effort, getting only slight distracted . . .

. . . by a tiny guitar.

That’s a keeper–it’s just the right size for my American Girl Doll. Who (and whose possessions) shall not be touched by The Purge. I have decreed it.

This purging amnesty also extended to the little box of American-Girl-doll-sized food that I made with my own two hands many, many years ago. Tiny pizza!

Tiny apple!

Tiny . . .

oh wait! It’s my old glasses from 2nd grade. Let’s see how they fit . . .

. . . just right!

They give a wonderful yellow tinge to the area around my eyes, which looks quite attractive, eh?

Not. Into the trash with ye!

Then there was an old jewelry box from Portugal that I used to think was the most beautiful thing in the world . . .

. . . but has been broken for ages. Time to go, sweet sweet jewelry box.

Next up was the project of housing of all our DVD’s in binders, to clear the shelf. My husband manned this effort solo. Great job, honeybunches!

And the purging of our TV! Into the alley, for some foraging person to find.

At this point, the closet looked more like this:

Slowly but surely, we were getting somewhere.

Then the bags were taken to the alley:

This was our first purging session. A second one happened a few weeks later, culminating in at least that much stuff going out the door again (though sadly, Haul #2 was not photographed by yours truly).

And by the end, John’s room looked like this:

And the closet, like this:

. . . with a closet organizer (a sneak peak of one of my Rummage finds).

Soon, tales of the “in with the new” part of things!

Well, let’s make that ‘soon-ish’ so that no one gets antsy waiting.

Purging Petronilla part 2: 112 things in 01/2012

And here is part 2 of our January purging efforts!

While the first half was mainly championed by me (as my husband was occupied with a series of post-burglary door-securing projects), the second half was mainly championed by him.

Go baby go!

It all took place in our 2nd bedroom, which is the residence of lots and lots of papers. Academic papers and articles my husband has printed out over the years, a file of my papers including old college stuff, childhood stuff, drawings, poetry, etc.

Papers are one of the hardest things to purge, because before throwing them away I usually feel the need to check each and every one. Which takes loads of time. And if I form an emotional connection with the paper in question that I’m reviewing because it stirs up memories of our early dating years, or my triumphant A+ in that one French class, then it becomes hard to throw away.

But we forged through! Not quite mercilessly . . . but a little mercilessly.

We got rid of well over 60 things–old checkbook covers.

My husband’s old Dark Shadows catalogue.

My old manuscript-style study of the book of Mark.

It was the most intense, amazing, satisfying, brain-stimulating study of the Bible I’ve ever done. And it involved lots and lots of colored pencils.

InterVarsity (the Christian campus organization that we belonged to as undergrads) loves their colored pencils. I remember thinking “how childish!” when I was first introduced to this technique of studying the Bible, but a mere 20 minutes after thinking this, I realized how great the color-coordinated marks are for seeing patterns in the text.

Sigh. I loved my undergrad life.

But it’s over. To the trash with you!

I also purged more old college syllabi.

Goodbye Intro to Criticism!

Jonathan Elmer did a fantastic job with that course . . . but am I really going to read through all my notes ever again? Probablement non.

When all was said and done, after this year’s purge I only kept the materials from one solitary poetry class and one lone French class. Maybe those can go next year, we’ll see.

Things that we uncovered that did NOT get purged:

My friends! Big Hermie, Little Hermie, Kaiser and Winston. I always thought of Kaiser’s name as spelled Cizer, by the way. It feels important that I should disclose how his name is spelled in my heart.

And my sheet music!

That ain’t goin’ nowhere soon.

This is just a tiny stack pictured, but there’s tons of it–a box full. Piano music, vocal music, choir music, classical guitar music, violin music. And it all must stay. That stuff’s expensive, man. And I totally want to take up the violin again once we’re in a more sound-proof apartment where I won’t die of guilt when the sreeching noise of my ineptitude fills the room.

By the end of our paper-purging evening, we had two huge trash bags going to the dumpster.

And it felt gooooood. With a couple empty file boxes, I was also able to find a new and safer place for my camera equipment.

Next year we’ll have to do 113 things, and I’m already looking forward to it. Not that we can’t purge throughout the year (we will! especially if we move) . . . but there’s something to be said about doing it as a joint project with your more-than-willing spouse, and feeding off of each other’s enthusiasm.

Until next year, Petronilla!