Purging

My BFF is pregnant and in the process of rearranging her house in order to make room for the new baby. Part of this process has included her purging the house of things she isn't using anymore. You know, the stuff that sits around and takes up space and clutters your life, but serves no real purpose anymore. In some cases, the stuff she has gotten rid of has been hard on her for emotional reasons. Those VHS tapes of stuff from the 90s hold a lot of memories for us. However, times change, space becomes scarce, and we realize that memories are in our heads, not in the objects.

As she was telling me about her house purging, I found myself getting a bit of an emotional rush off of it. I was grinning from ear to ear and encouraging her. I love purging the house. I love getting rid of crap and organizing the left over crap. I like seeing the house shed clutter to reach a finer and leaner potential. It's really, really awesome.

When I was younger, I used to hold onto things forever. I had like this death grip on them. I've been told this is quite common in people from troubled backgrounds. Our things become part of our identity, and, even more so, a part of our security. So when I would move, I would pack up the boxes of crap that I thought defined me . . . the candle holders, the toys, the various bits of decor that I felt I needed in my life no matter what.

There are still some things I don't want to be rid of. I know I keep these things for emotional reasons, not for practical ones. However, for most of the stuff lounging around in the house, I want it to serve a purpose beyond just being a place for cat hair and dust to gather.

My roommate and I tend to do a Spring Purge. We go through the house and eliminate the things that are no longer needed. As we do this, we reorganize the stuff we plan to keep. We repurpose space and we make our lives more comfortable.

As good as it feels to do this to the house, I know it is just as good to do this to myself. I want to shed the things that serve no purpose, both physical and emotional. I want to transform my body and mind into places of order, stability, and productivity. I want to look at my life, all aspects of my life, and see it as clean, healthy, and strong.

Given that, I think one of my goals is to find a way to make this happy emotional high I have at the thought of house purging and make it something I feel when I burn calories or remove emotional dead weight from my mind. I want to feel that kind of satisfaction, that sense of structure and order. Oh yes, I want that very much.