Last week I was on the East Coast where my parents live and besides celebrating my dad’s 78th birthday I helped my parents do a little purging in the garage. I would have loved to stay for another month. We could have easily worked in the basement and attic as well and gotten a lot more done. Peeled back a lot more layers so to speak. My parents aren’t moving anywhere just yet but maybe down the road they’d like to downsize and move into a retirement community. In that event it’s smart to start the process early and really start to whittle down. They’ve lived in their home for 42 years. And when you live somewhere that long it’s inevitable that you accumulate stuff. Things that aren’t really serving you anymore and that you don’t really need.
When you have stuff you don’t need around you it weighs you down. It clouds your thoughts. And I know for my parents too much stuff has been weighing them down.
I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t totally easy working with my parents. I think there were so many charged emotions. Maybe I reverted back to being 15 again. And I’m not sure I was totally being as patient as I could have been. I may have thrown the term hoarder around and my mom may have called me evil. We took one very large load to the thrift store and made a plan for giving lots of other things away. We made a really good dent in the garage. After I arrived back on the west coast when the dust had settled my parents thanked me again and told me how much they appreciated my help. I’ll be back again for another round as soon as they say they want my help again.
In the meantime I’ve reminded them to do a few things to help with the process of letting go.
Really ask yourself, is this serving me? Do I REALLY need this?
If I don’t need this can someone else use this? Maybe someone else will cherish this as much as I did.
And when you are purchasing something ask yourself, do I really need to bring this home? Again, do I really need this?