Pulled a Cynde. Spent 8 Hours Rearranging the House & Getting Rid of Things, Only To Realize I've Inherited the Ripley Hoarding Thing

I like knickknacks, memorabilia, and books. I'm sentimental and almost everything that comes into my house has a story attached to it.. With that noted, I'm bursting at the seams with shit, and with a day of floods, rain, and storms, I decided, let's do some rearranging for the Fall. It was a bit of a spring cleaning in late Fall, only to frustrate me that I need to do more.

Part of the issue is nothing sits still. I have the television stand and CD towers that my mother bought for me in Kentucky when I had no furniture. These are when TVs were thick, we had VCRs/CDs/DVDs and there were separate machines to play them all. Truth is, someone bought me a DVD player and I never used it. Yet, here I sit with 15 years of CDs and a decade of cassettes. They'll never be used again and I finally made the decision, "It's time." 

Then I tackled the books, which ended up being an enormous mess because I moved three book cases to another room and my cases are floor to ceiling. It is done, I still have to purge more, and now I realize I'm in need to better furniture. Even though the Pier One furniture is artful and nice, it's impractical. For now, I have knickknacks in them (read frog gifts) and I turned the ol' tv stand into a place to store office supplies (since CWP's office took over my house last year).

But now I'm thinking minimalism...detachment...riddance. I moved my middle, junior high, and high school yearbooks. Why? I will never look at them. There's no reason to...and of course I have all the yearbooks from teaching in Kentucky. Same. Meaningful for a moment, yes...but we're all connected digitally so it seems silly.

And then there are my sneakers. I have issues. The Atlas I used to keep in my car to find my way across country, highlighting all the roads I've traveled. Why? Our cars and phones do that now. But then I think, "Well, the writer in you..." Nope. It's junk. Even the Willie Wonka film remade with Johny Depp. I knew the animal trainer and got the poster while teaching in Denmark. Yes, an item that stood in my classroom and now three homes, but there's no reason for it. The movie was stupid, anyway.

I'm recalling all the purging done at Grannie Annie's and at Mom and Dad's and I'm still thinking, "Why do I keep anything. None of it matters."

Of course, years of photographs and picture frames, too. Gifts. Younger, pudgier versions of nieces and nephews, dogs, and outings for ice cream. Yes, they take a snapshot of time, but life moves forward. It is unlikely anyone would want the items.

So, I'll be hauling and rethinking decor...I have a lot of space for just me, especially as I only occupy my bed, my writing chair, and the toilet. When I host, everything goes abundant, but that is more rare than not.

Keepsakes are weird and I hate to depart with anything. Even as I look at the dufflebags of music, I'm thinking, I should capture the sounds poetically, trashing the way I used to be. Then I think, there must be hoarders and collectors who'd love this shit...my trash, their gold. But I am finalizing with a peace of mind. Move on. Separate. Go simpler. Easier. Less.

Ah, but I appreciate stupidity and always find room for it in my house. I need to do better.