not allowed

So this week we have been de-clutter-ing. We cleaned out one of our storage areas this weekend. We found some good stuff. Stuff that hasn't been touched for 6 years. Tell me why we thought we needed to keep boxes that I had my china in 13 years ago. Why did we think we needed to keep 10 years of computer boxes? Well, I am over it! They are all collapsed and going to the recycle bin. The world needs more corrugated cardboard and I'm here to give it to them.We will also be donating a lot of wire to the landfill here in the South. I took the time this morning to clean out a drawer filled with wires and power cords and computer hook ups and phone wires and ear phones and stuff "we might use sometime." And I made Chris sit next to me and look at every single wire and cord and try to remember what they are for and why we need to keep them. I was able to purge lots of stuff. "Chris. When we will use 24 separate phone cords? Chris. We will never need to hook our camera up to someone's computer. No Chris. We do not need a 12 volt car adapter today if WE HAVEN'T USED ONE EVER! Chris. We already have 85 of those things."

I'll be fair. If he were to sit me down and hand me all my platters or dishes and ask some questions, I would have lots of reasons too. "Chris. I know that at one point in our life we will host a party of 10,000 and need all these platters and cake plates. Chris. Yes, I will make 24 cakes to place on my 24 cake plates in one day. Of course we need all these bowls. These are for ice cream and these are for cereal, and these are for chips..." (Above numbers are exaggerations of course.)But back to the cords. Well, after throwing a lot of useless wires away this morning, this afternoon Chris was given one task while I was taking Lana and Ceily to gymnastics and swimming. He had to collapse all the cardboard boxes and dispose of trash. Well, he happened upon another box with another collection of wires. He had a grin on his face so wide, you would have thought he had won the lottery. I immediately said he needed to just toss the whole box out now and not waste the time going through it all. "Jayne. I need to walk down memory lane. Why must you deny me of this? It's been 6 years since I looked at and touched these. I have to see."

So we sat and rehearsed the before mentioned wire scene and I was quite proud of Chris. He only needed to keep 3 valuable items that "may come in handy." A cable wire. A cord that "costs $10 at the store and I almost had to buy one this week but I found one"...and one more phone cord because you never know when you might buy a new phone that doesn't come with new phone wire.It feels so good to get rid of useless stuff. Tomorrow, the hall closet...