New Years Purge

I save everything. Ev.Er.Y.Thing. I still have Jaxom's first day bus pass from Kindergarten. I have Odin's blood Pressure Cuff from the NICU...I would probably still have Gunnar's umbilical cord had Brenna not ate it thinking it was a raisin.

Up until 2011, I have hoarded every memory of my children into physical traces of them.
Up until 2011, I had every article of clothing each one had ever worn.
Up until 2011, I kept every piece of school work that was brought home, even those awful advertisements for Market Day and Chuckie Cheese.
UP until 2011, I still had my clothes from Middle School, and admittedly, with a bit of shame now, wore them with pride.

I was afraid that I would forget. I thought that somehow having those physical things would help me remember everything. My kids are the most important thing in my life, I didn't want to forget them, any moment of them. I think now that what scared me, and still scares me, is the fact that my grandfather had Alzheimer's Disease. He forgot who we are were before he passed.

I met a special person in 2011. That person helped me realize that I was obsessing over the wrong things. I was forgetting that all these things didn't matter, I was spending more time trying to find places for all the stuff that we were accumulating, when I could have been having more fun with the kids I was so desperate not to forget.

In June, I made the leap. I got rid of the first things in years. Admittedly, I still kept a lot of stuff, but I did get rid of about 70% of the 3 boys newborn - 12 months clothes. I decided that if it couldn't fit in a single space saver bag, it was still too much. I gave it away.

In July, I got rid of a lot of the stuff that Brenna had out grown. I kept her favorite 3 shirts, a dress and 2 pairs of shorts. I gave the rest away.

In August, I weeded through the kids Hospital Boxes. I now have only 4 shoe boxes with their hospital memorabilia in them. 1 for each child. The rest I either pitched or donated to the local High School.

In September, I took a break. For the Rest of the Year.

I picked it back up today. I had bags full of my clothes and Justin's clothes from the latest Lice escapade in November. I had been dreading hanging all the stuff back up. Well I didn't need to. I donated about 50% of our clothes...most of it either didn't fit, or we didn't have a purpose for it any longer.

I have planned on utilizing some new software/app to save copies of all my receipts this year so I can categorize them electronically. It's one more thing that I am letting go of. Quite honestly, I am surprised I haven't done it before. I always pull my hair out in December getting everything sorted before it's tax time in January.

I look forward to getting rid of things for the first time in 2012 before I fill an entire room. I'll settle for just getting rid of it before the end of the year. Some things deserve to be saved, some donated, some just tossed.

Thank you special friend for freeing me and my family from all of our baggage...literally.