The Great Purge of 2016
I think it was about a year ago that I just went nuts one evening and cleaned out my entire closet. I probably got rid of 75% of what was in there.
If it didn't fit, it was gone. Because really how good does it make you feel to walk into a closet full of cute stuff that you can't wear!
If I hadn't worn it in the last year... it was gone (even if it did fit).
If it was ripped, stained or had a hole in it, it was gone.
If I didn't feel good about myself wearing it... well that was a tough one, and has taken some time, but I'm finally getting to a place where I truly see the value of having less.
Less clothing meant I could decide what to wear and get dressed faster, leaving more time for my family.
In May of this year, God sold our 5 bedroom, 2700 square foot home in the largest subdivision in Molalla (more on that later) and we moved into a 3 bedroom 1200 square foot apartment in Wilsonville. Hello downsizing!
It was crazy! I went from getting rid of 75% of my clothes, to having to get rid of 75% of what we owned (because you see, I wasn't about to pay for storage... to me that is the most ridiculous idea in the world - unless of course it's a short term circumstance - but in our case, it was not happening!)
I was selling things on the Molalla Swap facebook page like crazy. "Porch Pick-up" was my thing and my house became even more of a revolving door than it was before, with people constantly coming and going.
After 5 weeks, the last final items remaining before the new owners moved in were hauled off to the dump by our realtors Tyrone and Andrea Parmelee (Thanks guys!)
We fit everything we had left into our new apartment "relatively comfortably", but the "urge to purge" continued. I probably sent at least a bag or two to Goodwill every couple of weeks.
Because the less I had, the more I realized that less truly is more!
Less square feet means less to clean, less to furnish, less to heat and cool. (If you own, probably less in property taxes...)
Less rooms means your family is forced to spend more time together.
Less toys means the kids spend more time ACTUALLY PLAYING than cleaning up.
In our case, downsizing came with much less responsibility since we were now renting instead of owning. This also equated to more family time since we weren't busy mowing the lawn or repairing things.
And now we have this incredible opportunity to spend the entire winter in Mexico and we are able to go and have this adventure as a family because we don't have a house, or tons of "stuff" weighing us down. God is so good and I'm excited to see what He has for us in 2017!
Happy New Year!
If it didn't fit, it was gone. Because really how good does it make you feel to walk into a closet full of cute stuff that you can't wear!
If I hadn't worn it in the last year... it was gone (even if it did fit).
If it was ripped, stained or had a hole in it, it was gone.
If I didn't feel good about myself wearing it... well that was a tough one, and has taken some time, but I'm finally getting to a place where I truly see the value of having less.
Less clothing meant I could decide what to wear and get dressed faster, leaving more time for my family.
In May of this year, God sold our 5 bedroom, 2700 square foot home in the largest subdivision in Molalla (more on that later) and we moved into a 3 bedroom 1200 square foot apartment in Wilsonville. Hello downsizing!
(This is an old picture from right after Kenton was born in 2014)
I was selling things on the Molalla Swap facebook page like crazy. "Porch Pick-up" was my thing and my house became even more of a revolving door than it was before, with people constantly coming and going.
After 5 weeks, the last final items remaining before the new owners moved in were hauled off to the dump by our realtors Tyrone and Andrea Parmelee (Thanks guys!)
We fit everything we had left into our new apartment "relatively comfortably", but the "urge to purge" continued. I probably sent at least a bag or two to Goodwill every couple of weeks.
Because the less I had, the more I realized that less truly is more!
Less square feet means less to clean, less to furnish, less to heat and cool. (If you own, probably less in property taxes...)
Less rooms means your family is forced to spend more time together.
Less toys means the kids spend more time ACTUALLY PLAYING than cleaning up.
In our case, downsizing came with much less responsibility since we were now renting instead of owning. This also equated to more family time since we weren't busy mowing the lawn or repairing things.
And now we have this incredible opportunity to spend the entire winter in Mexico and we are able to go and have this adventure as a family because we don't have a house, or tons of "stuff" weighing us down. God is so good and I'm excited to see what He has for us in 2017!
Happy New Year!
Comments