The singlet from a Falmouth Road Race was the hardest to let go.
Same with a great-fitting track club technical shirt circa 2003, the one with a weird red stain that everyone thought was blood. I admit, I still wore it to get a reaction.
On the other hand, my Boston sweatshirt proved a much easier parting. It had a big brown spot I'd never noticed.
I have spent the last two weeks purging my possessions. Now that I can see a difference, I’m starting to feel it too.
I’m not comfortable around clutter, having been raised in a home that friends use to call "House Beautiful." And yet over the last few months, I let everything -- and I mean everything -- pile up, leading me to conveniently ignore decisions and deadlines until I was in full-blown freak-out mode.
So, for the new year I [re]committed to compressing my belongings. For inspiration, on Tuesday night I attended the book launch for a local author who whittled his personal possessions down to 100 or less. I won’t be there until I’m in a nursing home, but in the meantime, I can certainly make it easier on my heirs to find the good stuff by getting rid of the bad.
You learn a lot rummaging through long-ignored shelves, drawers and boxes. For instance, I sometimes saw friends on a Food Network show and thought, “How’d they get on there?” Then last weekend I found an old NYCRR magazine column with a Post-it note from said friends indicating this was the nutritionist friend I’d met on a 1995 visit. Mystery solved.
During Tuesday’s book signing at Border’s, Dave asked me how it was going. I told him I was having trouble parting with useless yet highly sentimental items. He agreed it is tough and that he didn’t have such attachments when he underwent his challenge.
That led me to read a New York Times piece by a rather ruthless professional organizer who suggested taking a picture of such items, especially articles of clothing that remind you of a person or place. Moving through old photo albums in search of said pictures really helped me whittle down the number of running shirts, shorts, bras, socks and tights. For starters, I looked really fat in that Falmouth singlet.
The only running-related collections I intend to keep complete are my marathon medals and race bibs. Somehow, over all these years, I’ve managed to keep every single one of those numbers. It wasn’t always easy to find the box of them in that crowded closet. Now it is.
8 comments:
A picture is a perfect idea! I don't save the race bibs anymore, but I used to and wrote on the back of each one a little tid-bit of the race, which brings back a lot of fun memories. I just have too many and can't do it anymore. I wish I would have taken some pics of some race shirts that I purged long time ago...I'm for sure going to do it now. Thanks! Hope you feel lighter now with the purging completed :).
Awesome inspiration, Anne. I could totally stand to do some of this. A lot, in fact.
This year at Christmas, My husband and I pulled out our box of old race medals and assorted memorabilia and turned them all into tree ornaments. So, while I didn't throw anything away, I felt like I made some stuff that was just sitting in a box into stuff that felt useful in a way.
Okay, now I have to at least go do some cleaning! :)
100 items?!!?!? I think I have 100 items in my nightstand drawer. That is amazing. CONGRATS on the 3 lbs. That is absolutely awesome! Does the winner get a prize?!!? Besides looking and feeling stellar, of course?
100 things?? That is some challenge. In see that Dave only kept one pair of running shorts. I have about 6 and sometimes that doesn't seem like enough. All my other running paraphenalia probably easily tops 100, if you count all the race shirts. And I'm keeping my medals and bibs too, even though my kids will toss them when I'm dead and gone.
I did recently clean out my garage, but I couldn't toss my old Biology text books from college or 3 boxes of LP's I haven't listened to in 25 years. Throwing them in the trash seems like a waste, but I definitely don't need them.
I'm totally about taking a photo of sentimental clutter and then getting rid of them. That's what I did last year and need to do again. http://www.listgirl.com/2010/04/closet-overhaul.html
The picture idea sounds good.
I look forward to the day that I take 12-18 race shirts and turn them into a quilt. Living in ND you can never have too many quilts, and most of those shirts go unworn because they, truth be told, are pretty ugly. :)
My rule is if I haven't touched it in six months, then I might as well get rid of it....
Wow, Anne, that is awesome, and wow..under 100 possessions for that guy?? I will say, the changes I made this past summer, and moving in a hurry, made me really pare down some stuff. It was a good thing, I had entirely too much crap, and still do.
I still have all my medals, but no bibs, for some reason.
It is funny how much better you feel after shedding stuff, isn't it? I like the idea of taking a photo of stuff that you are sentimentally attached to. I've got lots of stuff that was my grandmother's which I never see, but i know it's there...Eventually I will part with more and have a good feeling as a result.
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