A Cure For What Ails Me

Purge

1. to rid, clear, or free
2. to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify.

Therapy

1. a curative power or quality.

2. any act, hobby, task, program, etc., that relieves tension.

I love our home. Our home is very quaint. It is a cape cod that sports a red brick front, 2 adorable dormers on the front, a wood burning fire place, hardwood floors, a 3 season porch and arched doorways to name a few of it's more fetching qualities. The first time we looked at this house, 10 years ago, I walked in the front door and I knew I was home. Our house has loads of personality points and just as many "quirks". You know the annoying things that just don't work quite right. One of the biggest "quirks" of our little charmer that drives Matt especially crazy is that most of the house has been wired into 1 breaker. SO, for instance, you can't run the microwave and a space heater upstairs at the same time because you will loose power to 3/4 of the house including the basement where the breaker box is located. However, despite it's many drawbacks I still adore our home and I have loved working on improving it whether that means reflooring the kitchen, tearing off wallpaper in the dining room, refinishing the wood work or organizing the closets, cabinets and crannies. That's right, I consider de-cluttering to be a home improvement project.

Purge Therapy is what I have affectionately started calling it when I get the urge to improve our living quarters, but our budget does not allow for the cost of demolishing any non-load bearing walls. I want to make our home better, I want us to be able to relax in it even more than we already do, to live in it easier and for our living space to reflect who we are as a family more and more accurately. So, when the purse strings are cinched to tightly for any major or even minor remodeling I have found that my urge for home improvement can be satisfied with a good ol' purge. I grab a box or a couple garbage bags, head for a closet or dresser or cabinet and let the cleansing commence.

This is the book that really got me going on the power of purging. The book is divided into room by room chapters on how to go through the things in each area and how to eliminate a) the things that are not used by your family on a regular basis and b) things that you do not absolutely love. I decided to read a chapter, and then work completely through that section of my house before I would allow myself to read the next chapter. And believe me it IS work, mental (keep give or throw?), emotional (but so and so gave this to us as a wedding present) and physical (when I am "done" I still have to haul all this stuff all the way out to the truck or garbage or put the keep stuff back where it belongs) I approached this ginormous task in this piecemeal manner because I knew I couldn't bite it all off at once or I would choke on my own aspirations of clutter-less-ness. It has been slow going for sure and I am still not done yet. I stalled out when I got to the garage/storage area chapter because that feels like a monumentally enormous job that I don't feel I can do on my own. I not even sure what half the stuff in those areas are for let alone if they are useful or not and none of it looks particularly beautiful to my eyes. I could enlist the assistance of my dear hubby but I have learned that he is of the "let's not get rid of it because we might have a need for it ten years down the road" persuasion. So, in matters of purging where his opinion is requested...slim to none ever goes. Maybe those areas will never get a good cleansing but that's ok, because I have tackled our main living areas where we spend most of our time and I know for my part the reduction of mental noise caused by useless clutter all around me has been reduced dramatically. I no longer have a Tupperware hell in my kitchen and I can, for the most part, reach in and find what I need right away. What I find to be truly interesting, and what actually inspired this post was the no matter how many times I purge an area, no matter how many bags or boxes of "another person's treasure" take a one way trip out our front door, there always seems to be more to purge.

Now granted, it takes us a lot longer to fill all those boxes and bags than it did in the beginning, but we are still filling them none the less. Point in case, I have purged almost every room in our house at least once sometimes more than that in the last year, but I still keep a bag in the bottom of my closet where all the "give" items throughout the house that inevitably come up are deposited until the bag is full enough to warrant a trip down the stairs and out the door to the back of the truck. Here is was I hauled out to the truck this morning:
3 big bags full, 3 boxes, an old jewelery chest and a couple unused hunting coats. Whew! I feel much better all ready! That is what is so great about Purge Therapy! When I am feeling home improvement-ish and without the funds to re-tile the shower or even when I am feeling stressed out and not in control of anything in my life, I can get myself some FREE therapy for what ails me and I get instant gratification, instant results and instant control over something that was out of hand...clutter!

So, my advice to you? Take 2 Purge Therapy pills and call me in the morning. You'll be glad you did!

Purge Therapy has been know to cause unusual feeling of euphoria, ecstasy and uncontrollable grinning. Use Purge Therapy only as often as you experience symptoms of clutter overload or just for the sheer hell of it. If you experience feelings of addiction to Purge Therapy, know that you are not alone. Over 126.38% of people using Purge Therapy become dependent on it for the maintenance of their sanity. If you run out of places to use Purge Therapy in your own home do not hesitate to call your sister, mother-in-law or neighbor's hair dresser to locate a new supply immediately. This statement has not been approved by the FDA, the FCC, or the FBI. Use Purge Therapy at your own risk as no lifeguard is on duty.