Letting Go

One night last week as I was flipping through channels on the television, a program really caught my attention and I couldn't pull myself away from it. The show was called "Clean House" and they were showing a special episode called "The Messiest House in America." I don't think I have ever seen a home with more clutter. I was mesmerized by the sight of it. Every room of the house was so filled with stuff that the couple couldn't walk through any of the rooms. There was no floor space, no space on any piece of furniture to sit on, no counter space in the kitchen, etc. Of course, with that much clutter, they couldn't clean anything either so everything was filthy. I sat there for two hours as they cleaned out all the clutter, sold most of it in a yard sale, and then completely redecorated the home so that it was actually a home! At the end of two hours the wife was in tears. The house was beautiful. I wondered to myself how long it would last. I mean... once a pack rat....?

Since I happened upon the show last week, I have discovered that it comes on regularly and I have watched a few more episodes. Each one features a different family of pack rats. Part of the show involves sitting down with the family and trying to figure out what drives them to hold onto EVERYTHING. Then the crew tries to convince them to part with certain items. Most of the stuff truly is junk and needs to be sold in a yard sale, donated to an organization that can use it, or tossed. However, some of the items are family heirlooms. At first I was kind of upset that the crew would try to convince the family to part with family heirlooms, even if they had just been collecting dust for over a decade. But now I'm starting to think differently.

After seeing a few episodes of Clean House, I am discovering all sorts of things in my house that I simply do not need or am not using. Some of these things I have held on to for "sentimental" reasons. For example, I have some Disney and Warner Bros. prints that Ron and I had "collected." They meant something to us and so I have held onto them even though they are no longer my taste. They have been sitting in my attic for several years now. I have lots of things that fall into this category. Do I really think I will ever use them? What is the point of holding onto "stuff" if you aren't going to enjoy them?

This weekend I am going to Clean House! I am going to take another look at all the stuff that I have accumulated and really think about whether or not I will ever use them. I will hold onto some things for Nick that belonged to his dad so that Nick can have them and then pass them along to his own children one day. But they will be items that actually meant something to Ron - not items that he just liked for a short time like prints for the walls! I will be giving everything else to Turning Point so that people that can actually use the items - people that actually NEED the items - will have them. I think it will be far more honoring of Ron's memory to have things used instead of just collecting dust.

(For more of Letting Go, visit A Widow's Might, where I have written more about letting go of "sentimental" items.)