Cleaning Out The Old Clothes

For the last few weeks I’ve been on a cleaning tear and it feels good! Because I’m getting some work done in my house, I’ve been inspired to get rid of stuff.

Traditionally the spring, which coincides with the Passover holiday, was a time when my mother attacked our home from the basement to the curtain rods in the living room. She even polished the brass door knobs to perfection. The goal of Passover cleaning was to rid the house of leavened products such as bread crumbs and grains of rice. I followed this tradition to a lesser extent but used it as a time to straighten out my kitchen junk drawers, get rid of useless stuff in the back of my cabinets (orange fondue set from 1971) and to re-organize my kitchen.

I’m not sure what has gotten in to me this year, my husband is standing back and staying out of my way, but I’ve been merciless with clearing, cleaning and dumping. It started with the fake wooden wardrobe in the garage where I was keeping the 1980’s turquoise Bat Mitzvah outfit I wore for one of my daughter’s party with the big shoulder pads.

I also had two garment bags containing my mother’s mink stole and my mother in law’s mink jacket. I realized on a Friday a few weeks ago I would never be wearing anything in this old-smelling wardrobe, and I wanted it out of my house that day. Yes, I can be a bit compulsive when I get a notion in my head. With just a few phone calls, I found someone to take away the wardrobe and located a thrift shop benefiting the Cancer Society who would take the furs. I added four long dresses I had bought for various occasions that I 1) probably couldn’t fit in  2)would never wear anyway. Why do we hold on to stuff? Yes there are sweet memories invoked to look at a particular garment and they are not easy to part with, but I gave myself a dose of tough love.

Then I nabbed one of my kids to get rid of her old college notebooks and textbooks. Surprisingly she agreed and I purged her room just hanging on to photo albums and a few school reports like her third grade report on Lyndon Johnson and an amazing poetry portfolio from high school. I still have one more closet to deal with but my other daughter isn’t in the mood so I told her I would hold off, at least for the time being.

I threw out stacks of magazines I saved from a literary journal which I always think I will go back to but never do.  With his reluctant permission, I donated my husband’s bowling ball from the 1960’s, his skis and boots,  and a broken down bookshelf. I collected stacks of books and found an organization to pick them up and added some candlesticks as well as a king size comforter and duvet in good condition (and clean) and other stuff. For pure throwaway junk, our local garbage company offers an annual free bulky waste pick up. It felt so good to have a pile of useless, broken down discards sitting on my driveway waiting to get hauled away.  We also got rid of old tax returns and other papers that we took to a shredding facility, not wanting to just dump them.

Another source of junk was the accumulation of old cassette tapes, scratched cd’s and a few relic VHS tapes as well. Out!!  I can hardly believe it but I dumped the dusty scrapbook, it is sitting in the re-cycle garbage can,  which contained the bits of pieces of my dating history with my husband. I hope I won’t kick myself about this tomorrow….and the re-cycle truck better come soon before I have second thoughts, but I decided it is OK. It feels right; it feels liberating to free one’s self of so much burdensome accumulation. I am still bogged down with things like three dozen Fostoria crystal glasses including water, wine, sherbet, ice tea, from my mother and mother in law and a half dozen silver platters, wedding gifts I have never used. My kids absolutely will not want these. I don’t use them either. So they sit in a cabinet, unused and unloved. If I could find them a good home, I would happily give them away. Maybe some day…Anyway, I highly recommend spring cleaning which is good for your house and your head.