My husband and I just made a massive donation to Salvation Army this morning. It was fantastic.
Over the last few months, I’ve been going through our stuff, sifting through the endless Rubber-Maid bins, overstuffed closets and sealed up boxes that have been traveling with us across the country and back for the last seven years.
It was amazing the treasures discovered and the magnitude of junk I uncovered. Why was I carting around an oversized envelope labeled ‘college memorabilia’ that had nothing in it but random severed wrist bands and band flyers? Better yet, why did I have a pair of cranberry colored Converse shoes in a box of books?
Amidst the random pieces of life, I came across letters from ex-boyfriends (yes honey, they have all been thrown away), letters from my foreign exchange student (Naho) and even some old family heirlooms that I thought my parents had. It was liberating to see old, filed away papers and miscellaneous items purged and to find the items that really meant something. I was sick of hearing myself say, “what is that, and why do I still have it?”
The largest amount of items we donated were my clothes. I am speechless about the quantity and quality of most of the items I had to part with. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to do. I’ve come to accept, however, that I’ve recently had a baby and I will frankly never be 110 lbs again in my life. So I said goodbye to my countless The North Face shirts, all of my skater baby tees, and some bikinis, shorts and skirts. After I was finished, I felt good. Really good. I had officially purged my closet and dresser drawers of all things too tiny for me to wear.
It was enjoyable to empty out half of my basement last night with my husband in preparation for the Salvation Army team to come take away the items that were donation-worthy. We gave them a mattress, some cookware and clothes galore. We are both extremely satisfied that our goods will be of use to someone who needs them much more than we do.
I watched the crew come and take away my stuff this morning. As soon as they left, I did the victory dance in my driveway.
