Clearing the Decks

This time tomorrow, we will be surrounded by strangers. They will be inspecting our belongings. Handling our knick-knacks. Sitting in our chairs. Rifling through our CDs and books. They will want to buy them for 5 cents.Yes, we are having a garage sale.And it is forecast to rain, rain, rain. (This will only end well, I can assure you.) UPDATE: It did end well actually. Well, sort of.This will be the second garage sale we've held this year. But we are also determined that this will be our last. Ever.So the past couple of weeks have been spent sorting through our clothes, linen, decor, knick-knacks, sporting gear, music and DVD collections, craft supplies, books and kitchenware.Yesterday, Sparky had had enough. You could say he cracked them. And I could sympathise. I wanted to crack them too.I was so sick of sorting through stuff. Things. Things that just take up space and energy and time. Things we have spent so much money on in the past. Things I don't need anymore. Things I never needed in the first place. Things I bought in the hope of using them. Things that made me feel like a better person. Things I was guilted into buying. Things I've been guilted into keeping.I could count on one hand the number of things we came across that I had any genuine love for.The rest of them, I had felt compelled to keep because:

• someone I love had given it to me
• it reminded me of good times in the past
• it made me feel a sense of achievement, in looking how far I'd come
• I felt I should keep it, because everyone else does

 But what I've discovered over the past six months, as I've read about embracing a slower, simpler life, is that none of those reasons listed above is a good enough excuse to surround ourselves with vampire belongings.

• selling something a loved one has given me doesn't mean they love me any less
• selling something that reminds me of good times in the past doesn't mean those times were any less fun
• selling something that shows me how far I've come in life doesn't make my achievements any less valid
• selling something that other people think I should keep doesn't matter. If they think I'm weird thats OK - I am weird.

 So, we're clearing the decks. Starting down a new, simpler path. Learning to be more mindful of what things we bring into our home, because we recognise that our time as a family, and our energies, are far too important.Far too important to spend reorganising boxes of papers, old snow gear, clothes that don't make us feel great, CDs we don't like, movies we've never watched, games we haven't played.So tomorrow, we slap some price stickers on it all, sell to the highest bidder, and give away whatever's left at the end. Nothing from the garage sale comes back into the house. And I can't wait!!