I did it. I got a dumpster. My kids are NOT dealing with what I just did.

Both of my parents are gone. My father passed in February. Emptying the house was a nightmare. There were a lot of great mementos, but where do you draw the line?

We found so many things that are really cool but they were hidden away. They basically just took up space. So! Much! Stuff! I was torn between keeping things for nostalgia or being realistic. Then I realized that keeping things for the sake of nostalgia was what caused all this chaos. We kept some precious momentos and donated a lot of things. But it’s May now and just finished the job. We ended up throwing out a lot of stuff. I’m willing to bet my parents put them away and never looked at them again.

I get it, I want to keep everything with a memory attached. But this opened my eyes. What stuff do I have saved just to save it? Stuff I never look at?

So I did it. I got a dumpster and yesterday I went through everything and just got rid of it. I told my kids to get what they want because I’m getting rid of everything else. I kept a few things for myself.

I don’t want my kids to spend months going through my things and figuring out what to throw away, what to keep, and what to donate.

It was freeing. I understand why they kept the stuff, I feel the same way about my things. But it reaches a point where it’s almost ridiculous. I’m glad I did it. Today I’m doing a really deep cleaning of my home. It’ll be wonderful when I’m done, almost like a new start.

Happy Tuesday! 🙂