It's been a blissful year; this month we celebrate our first year anniversary in this new home. Happy memories of get-togethers with family and friends abound; we didn't encounter any negative vibes here, everything is just wonderful.
Since this time also marks the start of my journey in disposing the "excesses" of "worldly possessions", I'm here to rehash and share with you how I was able to declutter.
I started to sort our stuff when I was packing up prior to our move to the new home. I was over-whelmed at the enormity of the things I had to pack, I didn't realize that we accumulated so much in all these years especially the kitchen effects.
"What do you expect?":
I asked myself, then I realized that earlier on when we were both working, we hosted lots of parties that I wanted to have "all the works". Add the gifts I got on our silver wedding anniversary and those on birthdays and Christmases so they really added up.
As I tried to take photos of each one that were stored under the big island and kitchen cupboards thinking to email them to my children to choose from; I saw items I didn't even remember I had; some still in gift wrap; dinner sets, all kinds of glasses and mugs, trays, bowls and platters galore! I had two sets of punch bowls with hooks to hang the cups around; two sets of silver coffee/tea sets, cups and saucers and lots of serving paraphernalia.
Initially, I was hoping that my children would want some of our stuff but then two of them live abroad so I realized that even if they wanted too, it's more practical for them to buy where they are.
"I just want my Tonka toys", my son said.
So I boxed up his red tractor, the blue and white hauling truck, the yellow bulldozer and the blue dump truck.
My younger daughter who also lives abroad indicated she wanted the big 1954 poster of the 2nd Marian Congress in the Philippines that my Papa framed in heavy narra; plus a mother-and-child pastel painting of a Filipino artist, Tagle. Since then, she has been home thrice but she only took home a crystal vase and a set of antique silver cake server. Nevertheless, I'll keep those two for her.
My older daughter who lives in town still has her wedding presents intact in boxes after eleven years. She only got a Pyrex loaf pan, a crystal bowl and a round serving platter. What am I to do with the rest? I gave my brother wine glasses and I asked a niece, whose house is being constructed and she only wanted a set of brandy glasses.
"I'll look into your frames when my house is done, Ninang", she said.
We had boxes and boxes of books, hard bound and paperbacks alike, magazines too. Before the advent of the iPad, I bought at least three paperbacks a week and my husband at least one bestseller a week since he watches TV more often than I do. I donated to a remote barrio educational books, children's books, a set of children's classics and a set of old encyclopedia for their school library. The remaining books for reading entertainment and the magazines were marked for sale.
I was lucky to have the luxury of time in sorting our belongings before we sold the house. I followed the traditional three boxes for "keep", "donate" and "dispose". It was easy to do this with my clothes. For kitchen items and house decor, I also had three groups: "keep", "retain while I think about it" and "dispose".
Fortunately, I operate a retail store so all the items to "dispose" ended at the store for sale. I was surprised that they went fast, in six months most of the items were sold out including a sala set, and an office swivel chair. We had to give away to a neighbor one sala set. I brought the "donate" items to our parish office that took care of distributing them.
My biggest challenge was my younger daughter's stuff in her former room untouched since she went to work abroad. In spite instructions from her, I still needed my best judgement in sorting them; it's difficult to sort things that aren't yours. I was deludge in her mountain of clothes; fortunately her sister knows her stuff well and that helped me decide which ones to keep. Her albums occupied an entire row of a cabinet so I let someone detached the pictures to fit into three one-foot cube boxes.
Although my older daughter got all her clothes when she got married, the space vacated were occupied by baby stuff of my granddaughter. Sorting this was simpler since she was there to do it, still it took us three sittings.
Right after our move, my younger daughter sent me the Marie Kondo ebook: "The Life-changing Magic of Tidying-up".
To this day, I still refer to it. She also sent me the link on becoming a minimalist. As I continue to trim down our stuff, I still review the minimalist blogs. When I discard a piece of clothing, a home decor or a dish nowadays, doing so gives me a good feeling that I can't quite explain, a sense of calm and serenity as well as relief are words that come close but doesn't fully describe it.
In retrospect, I'm proud to say that my de-cluttering journey didn't bring me difficult emotions or any mental "tag-of-war" whether to keep or discard something. However when I sorted two shoe boxes of greeting cards I saved before the digital age , I cried and didn't have the heart to throw away any of them. I guess it was the sentimental thoughts and loving greetings that made them so previous. I saved them all!
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