Re-prioritizing and Purging

Hello all, my how long it has been. I'm not entirely sure how many people keep up with this, but I'm assuming it can't be that many. So, I suppose it's time for an update.

My attitude over the last month or so has changed dramatically. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that it's a new year - the changing of the calendar doesn't really affect me all that much; I've never been one to really make New Year's resolutions or anything like that. However, THIS particular calendar year means I'M GRADUATING, and leaving this awful valley and all of its brown-ness and dustiness and dirtiness and dryness, and I'm going HOME. Still working on the whole be-an-adult-and-get-a-real-job thing, since I have literally been in school my entire life minus 1.5 years during which I was applying to school...and working as a server in a restaurant and then a nanny. Not bad experiences, to be sure, but definitely not my ultimate life goal.

I had a super long post that I was working on for a while that is still saved as a draft, because it started getting really long-winded and more involved than I wanted. It was about priorities and sustainability, based on some other blog posts that I had found particularly intriguing at the time, and also based on my former attitude towards my own life at that time. Suffice it to say that my attitude and behavior were NOT sustainable, I had my priorities out of whack (and some of them still are, let's be honest), and I was not doing anyone in my life any favors by being such a Negative Nancy.

To remedy this, I rearranged a few priorities and started literally cutting things out of my life. I started saying "no" to people and things. We started getting rid of one thing per day from our home - which has been awesome, by the way (more on details of that later). I started listening to my wise clinic partner, and now we brush things off by uttering "shenanigans!" or "that went well...could have gone better..." to each other when things in clinic just are ridiculous, which is literally multiple times a day. We have a good chuckle about it most of the time, and it has truly helped me just brush things off. Plus, I remind myself constantly that graduation is THIS YEAR, I've made it, and all I have to do is pass my regional licensing exam that is coming up very soon.

There are, of course, things I have definitely continued to procrastinate about. After all, I am the master procrastinator. But let's get back to how awesome it is to get rid of stuff!

The idea to get rid of one item per day from our home came to me as I was writing out my rules for leveling up in the game of life. One of the big things we are doing this year is moving, which is my absolute least favorite activity or event EVER. In addition, we have SO MUCH STUFF. I would not classify us as hoarders, but I have already admitted to you all that I could open my own Hobby Lobby store with all of the craft supplies I have. Let's add the fact that we are both sentimental, and have outdoor hobbies such as camping that require special equipment, and the fact that I will never have enough pairs of shoes...you get the point. We already had decided that there were some larger pieces of furniture that we would not be moving across the country with us, but I thought to myself, "what if we could take less small stuff with us, too?" GENIUS. Less boxes, smaller truck, less trips up multiple flights of stairs, less clutter in both our current and future homes...winning all around.

So, we have actually done a really nice job of keeping this habit up. Although it's not literally "one item per day," we have purged so many things in the last two months that I feel like I can actually enjoy our little apartment a bit. I got rid of a TON of clothes that I finally admitted to myself I would never wear again, and get this - when I tried them on, most of them were actually TOO BIG for me! It was an amazing feeling to be rid of so many clothes. I was able to consign a bunch of them, and donate the rest to an organization that helps in-need women get training and jobs to improve their own lives. 

Other things we've purged: old mismatched pots and pans and crap frying pans we each brought from our respective previous living situations (we did buy a new set as a combined late wedding gift/Christmas gift to ourselves...but they are AWESOME and we will keep them for years and years), old t-shirts, several other random kitchen items, some of my craft supplies, reusable water bottles, some random household items such as a soap dish and some bookshelf decor that was unnecessary...and all of that went to Goodwill. 

There has been a ton more that we just threw away, like old issues of magazines that we'd read halfway through, mail we thought was important that we ended up shredding (some of it was scanned to PDF form just in case) since it hadn't been filed in its appropriate "important folder" yet, coupons I thought I had put in a useful place but had expired, half-used samples of lotions and perfumes and make-ups, etc etc etc. Some stuff I just ended up using the rest of and then throwing the empty away. What's the point in having a whole collection of travel-sized lotions you love if you don't even use them? Man, the Palazzo, the Sheraton, and the Hilton have awesome lotions. I definitely pack the first one so housekeeping will leave a second one, and I take that one too! But what's the point if I don't even use them - I don't get to enjoy them! Well, I AM NOW! And it's awesome.

So, that's it for today y'all. Rambling as usual, and now this is super long. But, I hope I made the point that priorities and a sustainable attitude are tightly connected, and hopefully I've even given you some inspiration to re-prioritize some things in your life that you may feel are weighing you down. Remember: re-prioritizing it might mean purging it altogether.

Now, for my afternoon tea :)