Sunday, January 3, 2010

Cleaning, Purging, and Moving Forward Into 2010

Our doorbell rang at 7:30 am Saturday morning. It woke me from a dream about a crazy merry-go-round ride that had live animals to sit on. I think my animal was not happy with me for some reason.

The gal at the door had seen my ad I posted on craigslist the evening before and although it said the garage sale would start at 8:00 am she just wanted to make sure we didn’t start earlier. My husband answered the door shirtless and responded that no we had not sold anything yet and that we were not selling cell phones or clothes from Niemen Marcus or Nordstrom (my husband knowing that my trips to those listed stores where null).

Although that was rude to ring our doorbell when obviously we were not ready yet, I'm glad she did because who knows when I would have woken, much less gotten, up.

I pulled on my clothes, put up my hair into a ponytail, and pinched my cheeks to look like I was alive at least, and started to drag out the boxes of items from the garage to the front yard. While at it, that lady kept following me back and forth re-questioning the items that were coming out (are you sure you do not have clothes from Nordstrom’s? Not even a sock lady.)

Then a family drove up asking about the kid bikes we had for sale. The same lady from earlier whispered, "Watch out for him - he stole a gold ring from an English lady at a garage sale." Then she followed me back to my garage into my backyard and continued, "Watch out for him." Then she came back out and yelled at him, "We all know about you! We know you stole that ring from that lady!" and then jumped into her van and yelled to me, "Watch out for him." Then the dog, we were taking care of, escaped barking out the front door as my older son bounded after him. Three more cars pulled up to get a good view of our treasures and I still hadn't dragged all the stuff out. It was 8:00 am and who could still be sleeping through all this morning chaos, but my youngest child who has been gifted with hibernating abilities and didn't wake for several hours later - but the neighbors were all now up.


For the next three hours I sat in the front yard, sipping a Peppermint Mocha Latte (only because they ran out of eggnog) only to have four more treasure seekers. As I sat there in our red, fold-up beach chair I picked up a magazine from the periodical stack my friend had given to me after she cleaned and purged stuff from her house the other day. “Allure,” December 2009 with Kirsten Dunst on the cover. As I sat there on this increasingly warm January morning in the midst of my garage sale goodies, I read every page of that magazine from cover to cover. Honestly, I don't think I have read an Allure magazine, especially every page.

What I learned from that magazine:

• 60% of women first colored their hair as teenagers. -- Alure.com poll. Well, I guess I'm part of the 40%.

• The bun updo is back in, but a loose messy version of it. Whew, because that is the only version I can do.

• When asked, "Heals or flats?" Victoria Beckham replies "I beyond hate ballerina flats..." Okay thanks for that while I'm wearing my ballerina shoes.

• After the question, "Sex or Sleep" Mrs. Beckham continues, "Sex. I'm getting into bed with David Beckham... so there must be something wrong if I said sleep." Like my housekeeper quit on me and I had to clean the bathroom one day or something - albeit I digress here.

• In the year 2002, “a study found that taking a bone-strengthening supplement for four weeks made people slightly taller.” (I guess I won't be dong that anymore. wink wink)

• Google recently created a new function that allows Gmail users to "unsend" e-mail.

• After traveling across country, Kirsten Dunst pronounced, "Wow, America is so poor." "There are beautiful stretches of pasture, but for the most part, people live simply."

As I sat in my front yard observing that no one wanted my past treasures and thumbed through a magazine of high fashion, I realized I too want to live simply. There is no need to store junk, to spend to much time and thought about finding fashionable clothes that I only end up wearing a couple of times, or to collect "treasures" here on earth. Essentially it is about living, touching and loving others, and moving forward in life.

I collected my rejected items and packed them into my car. My boys and I dropped off the boxes and bags at a nearby Goodwill store where I ran into an acquaintance, a fellow mom. She too had just gone through her house and purged, but she had also just sold her house and was preparing for her family’s move. She had a difficult 2009 and she was going to start her year and the decade with people and things that matter. She was going to live simply.

Here is to cleaning up and purging all that junk and bad habits we have collected over the years and to moving forward with what and who matters.

What did you purge from 2009 that you are not taking into 2010: eating unhealthy, lying, showing disrespect to your spouse, laziness, lack of respect for authority, not taking school seriously enough, neglecting your children, or something else? How are you starting anew in the new year and the new decade? What is in your personal garage sale?

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4 comments:

  1. great post pretty girl, We all have to much clutter in our lives in general. My garage and my calendar are testiments to that.
    keep up the good work

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  2. That's so funny because something about the new year makes me want to purge too! Kevin asked what I wanted to do tonight and I said...how about clean the garage and he laughed...uh no I'm serious! That's what I want to do! :)

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  3. First of all, I want to apologize for Buddy's terrible behavior. That dog just won't stay put! Something we have been working on and haven't accomplished - obviously.
    Second of all, I actually have decided to purge a few things. Although they may seem selfish, if you knew me, you may understand. I have decided to finally do things for myself and start tackling the list of things I have always wanted to do. Unfortunately, they will have to wait a few months since I need to get my Real Estate Broker's License (ugh), but this is my New Year’s Resolution.
    I think as women, we often forget to take care of ourselves and before we know it, we are further on in our years and we haven't accomplished some of the easy things we wanted to do. This year, I'm going to work on accomplishing them. I'm going to 'purge' things off my "Bucket List." Yes, at 32 I have a Bucket List....may have thought of a new topic for the blog?!?!?

    Kerri G.

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  4. @Kerri G ~ Buddy did fine. He was just freaking out with the rush of people to our front yard. Plus, the beach life and all that activity gets him a bit wired I'm pretty sure.
    So, I'm not familiar with the "Bucket List" - you can fill me in on what that is about for sure. You also gave me another idea of a future blog post: What About Me - Learning to Take Care of Ourselves. Isn't it true, women are so often busy taking care of others that we neglect some of our own needs. Thanks for the idea and the comment!

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