By Charlotte Byus
And I don’t mean weight wise! As some of you may know we have our house on the market to sell. We want to travel the USA but not in a Chevrolet. Ha Ha. If you don’t get it, you’re too young for this story. The fourth time our realtor told us to “Cut the Clutter,” I had to ask for help. I began making daily trips to Second Going to drop off stuff. I came to the conclusion I have too much stuff. When I begin collecting used string, we’ll need to look into a “Clutter Support Group.” Where I am going with this article is this – it is better that WE clean out our stuff rather than have our poor kids face this when we’re gone.

Stuff like old newspaper clippings, love letters from when we were in college, dried up wedding bouquet(s) … yes, these may be very special things to us. But I am pretty sure I don’t want my kids reading my old love letters, if you know what I mean. For fifty years, we have collected stuff – things that mean something to us. Our kids will have absolutely no idea what on earth we were keeping this stuff for. For instance, how many times have your changed your décor? And each time, of course, you had to keep a few things from each change. Believe me, the kids will not understand.

To prove my point, throughout my purging, I’ve asked our two daughters to come down several times to take things home with them. “Please take what you want.” Garden items were nabbed – that is a good thing, as I have way too many accent pieces in my garden. They never take enough and never seem to take the items we think are important.

So it was time to dry my tears and find a person to help me achieve this task. I needed someone who would not back down from me when I said NO! I found her! Just as the TV show said, “We got out 3 boxes, 1 was trash, 2 were keepers, and 3 bags went to Second Going. We started with the kitchen, then the dining room and living area – Man what a difference that has made in clearing out our stuff.

I am trying to adjust myself to a new life style and I think I will love it. Let’s face it. Who needs to afford a storage unit the size of a house? And, by the way, I don’t think they make a 5th wheel with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a 2-car garage with extra large closets. Couldn’t afford it anyway.

[10-12-2015]