Purge it Baby!

We are fast approaching the 15 month mark of living in our empty nest and I believe that, so far, we have survived with dignity and grace.  Ok, maybe dignity and grace were not the principle elements but, we did survive.  And what is it, exactly, that we have survived?  We have survived being in our home...alone...together...just the two of us- which might not sound like a big deal to most but it has been quite interesting.  We have survived our youngest deciding to move in with her sister instead of coming home for the summer--it wasn't a surprise, those two are very close.  We are still trying to survive the passing of Hubs' mother 4 months ago.  We have survived the quiet--shoot, we're almost enjoying that part now.

Since we now have some sort of understanding as to what to expect from an empty nest, it was time to start making decisions about what to do with all this space.  We have a tiny house but, with the 4 daughters living elsewhere, we had, for the first time, SPACE!  Unfortunately, it was cluttered space.  When the youngest moved her possessions out, I wondered what she had actually taken with her.  It was a prime example of what a room looks like after it is hit by the proverbial tornado.  In other words, it looked just the same as when she did reside here with us.  This child, baby daughter M (in order to discern her from married daughter M), took her dresser with her but left everything once contained in said dresser ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  She took her oblong table but left all of its contents ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  She took her big bookshelf but left all the books and knickknacks ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  She took the closet contents out of her closet and took what she needed/wanted, left the rest and, guess exactly where she left it?  That's right, ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  The other 'daughter room' was not as bad with most left behind items stowed in the closet.  Then there was the attic.  And so, we officially entered the PURGE! phase of having an empty nest.

I gave all who had possessions stored here a timeline for going through all of their crap precious assets and rescuing those items they wished to retain.  Any remaining items would go into the Empty Nest Yard Sale.  Should anyone not make it home to siphon through the jungle (and I mean THICK jungle) of belongings, no worries!  It would ALL go into the yard sale, claimed or not.  Finally, the attitude I've been waiting for had arrived--DON'T MESS WITH ME ON THIS ISSUE!

I could see it all without even closing my eyes!  An office/study in the back bedroom.  The front bedroom, a guest room.  EXTRA closet space....EXTRA I said!!!! Clean rooms that STAY that way because they aren't cluttered with things that don't belong to the two of us!  Good Lord IT'S A MIRACLE!

Then I started going through all the attic boxes and containers.  I saw all the American Girl dolls and accessories; the mountains of stuffed animals; all those trophies; baby clothes...sweet, precious memories, NOT mere stuff.

We do have a large number of things for the yard sale (although the attic looks the same as it did before the Great Purge of 2010) and 85% of these things belong to my mother who is moving in with her sister so she purged her house while packing (I did save the Fisher Price Toot-Toot from her 'stuff.').  There is no study or guest room either.  What the heck, I've lived with clutter all these years, what's a few more? 

Mostly Mimi's stuff

Also mostly Mimi's stuff