Fall Cleaning

I’ve been busy, {hence the quiet on the blog - has anyone even noticed?} with cleaning, purging, some major re-organizing and have done some fall cleaning too! My mother would be so proud!

In June 2010, our daughter married her sweetheart, that following September both Kyle & Darcy left for college. Going from a full house to an empty one in the matter of a short few months. When our daughter and her husband bought their first home, I went through this old farmhouse and gathered up all her “stuff”, and took it to her new house. The boys rooms, however I left alone.  Until this week, when I realized that I sincerely doubt they will ever move back home and it’s quite silly to leave their rooms looking as if they are just away at college. Both of them are now living with a chum at an apartment and have pretty well taken from the farm most of what it is they want to keep. The “stuff” that’s left behind is primarily old papers, clothes that no longer fit, some keepsakes, but mostly it’s just stuff that someone else could likely benefit from.

So, the last time the boys came home, I had them go through their rooms, dressers & closets; giving me an idea of what to keep, what to toss, and for the past few days I did just that.

I’ve taken 4 large recycling bags to the local thrift shop,

sold some of the furniture, two large boxes are waiting to be burned and the keepsakes are boxed up and ready to be moved.

Not only was I physically exhausted, I was also emotionally drained. As I was packing up their belongings, I was really struggling.  It somehow felt like I was erasing them from our lives. And then I was reminded of these wise words that had been spoken to me “you are not erasing them from your lives by removing their stuff, those are just things”.

For the rest of this year and through the winter of 2014, my goal is to go through each room of the farmhouse; cleaning, purging and organizing each cupboard & closet, until I am rid of the excess. After all, as I've told the farmer, when {not if} we leave the farm most this stuff is not coming with us, and if that’s the case, then why I am hanging on to it?

Blessings