Letting Go Of Piles

As I have been working on letting go of those things I no longer need, value or wish to have in my energy space I have been most recently clearing out my magazine stashes.... For those who know me you might need to sit down and breath...

I admit up until four years I ago I had about a six or eight subscriptions coming to the house. I would read them cover to cover and many times over while sitting in the barn waiting to babies to arrive or while snowed in for weeks at a time - I learned so much but as I now realizing I have those lessons in my head and I really do not need the paper sitting in their nice and neat stacks. I admit I even told myself - what if my mind starts to slip I would have the paper here to go back to the article I needed and so I should to keep them - I know that was weird thinking because if my mind was such mush I would not be thinking that I needed the information. It is strange what we tell ourselves. O.K. maybe it is strange what I tell myself but I can't be the only one with faulty logic. I know I am not one of those folks who have only a small little path through their ceiling high piles, nor do I save scraps of paper without the will to throw it away - I have just been deciding that I really do not need or want certain things in my life anymore.

I also felt guilty that the paper was here and that I had already contributed to the deforestation - so getting rid of them was wasteful. Once I realized that this did not fit into my new way of walking in the world some four years ago I stopped all but four subscriptions and they all have to do with my business. That stops me from keeping the problem going and now it was just a matter of clearing out the problem that was already here.

I have been finding new homes for them where I can such as the Martha Steward and Mary E's on the kitchen table. In the antique wooden crate are quilting, beading, stamping, altered art and design magazines. In my bedroom is the antique bakers rack house the nice and neatly stacked Mary Jane, Mother Earth, Wild Fibers and Spin Off - which at some point will be going up for sale because I have all the issues for those and they are worth something according to my fiber and farm friends are hoping to get into their collections.

I have made a deal with myself that each night I set the kitchen timer for 10 minutes and I take a stack of magazines. I go through each one to make sure there was not some special article I missed or that I really needed to read over again (so far there has only been a few) and then I put it in the sack. This has been a good project while I was sitting in the barn with Sugar but I still kept with the timer because none of us want to do something we hate for the whole day and night. That feels to much like punishment and none of us sign up for that - so a little at a time.

Now I understand most would say what is the big deal? They are only magazines. I would have no problem there but I am sure you have something sitting in your house that is your "Pile". You might even find this strange for me to be writing about since I am known for the "Black Trash Sack Cleaning" That is what my boys called it... When I would just have too much of life crapping all over my world and I need to get things under control I would go on a cleaning spree - that meant the Huge Black Construction Sacks were unrolled and away I went. Some folks have had me do that for their homes when things have gotten out of control, I have done this when someone has passed and the family just could not cope with going through things and it has even been suggested that I become a professional home organizers. Now that it is just me here and the work load never ends the piles may be really organized but there has not been too many of the Black Sack Cleaning Days. I have also been working as you all might know on a change of life adventure. I have lived here for 15 years and I don't need, want or use 80% of what is in this house so it is time to get real and get down sizing.

What in your life needs to be let go of??? What is it that you tell yourself as to why you can not do it? What "Letting Go" project do you feel you are willing to work on this week?? Would love to hear from you and let's support each other in cleaning up our piles.