The one who dies with the most stuff, wins. NOT!

I was recently on a writing hiatus because I had two projects that I absolutely had to finish.  The first a garage sale, the second a video project I agreed to do.

At the beginning of the year I talked the Director into taking Dave Ramsey’s’ Financial Peace University class.  We had taken a Crown Ministries class in the past.  In fact we took a couple and led a few.  So it’s not like we were completely clueless when it came to money.  But, I had heard great things about FPU (Financial Peace University) and felt we could always use a refresher when it comes to money.  He agreed.

We have had very little debt since taking Crown Ministries, but recently we had been thrown a few curve balls and accumulated a small amount.  In class we learned about Gazelle intensity at paying off everything.  Dave suggests that you do everything from sell off your stuff in a garage sale, to getting another job, in order to live like no one else, so that later you CAN LIVE like no one else.  I had decided and talked the Director into having a garage sale as one of our activities to get rid of our extra monthly bills.

Now the Director and I have had numerous garage sales all the way back to before we were married.  Often times we did very well, but toward the end of the last few we had had, we made very little for the amount of time we put in.  To be blunt we just didn’t have anything that anyone wanted any more.  We had sold off everything of any real value.  We learned that it was much better to donate stuff and write it off on our taxes.  Until last month we had not had a garage sale in about 10 years.

I finally decided we had a lot of stuff; it was time to de-clutter and make a little money in the process.  Besides Goodwill and the Salvation Army are getting VERY picky about what they will take, especially when it comes to kids items like furniture and toys.  So we planned, set up and went forward with our garage sale.  As the morning went on I realized just how much I HATE having garage sales!  I hate the haggling; the arranging and rearranging of items and watching my stuff go.

I’ve mentioned before that my siblings were born with certain genes that I did not get, such as the movie quoting gene, the cereal eating gene and in this case the GET RID OF STUFF gene.  I have a hard time letting go of things!  I have all these sentimental attachments.  I love the idea of having preserved stuff to pass down to my children.  When I was a kid I loved going through the stuff in my grandmother’s attic.  A walk-in attic filled with old things that represent memories and people’s lives, fascinates me!  I’m very nostalgic in that sense.

Now my sister gets rid of things faster then they enter her house.  She and my brother, the Stuntman are true minimalists, in my opinion.  And, in some ways I envy them!  I would love to live a simplified, de-cluttered life!  The house would be so much easier to take care of then.  But unfortunately my nostalgic, pass it on, connection with the past, always wins over.  Of course my mother’s mantra of “use it up, wear it out, eat it all also plays a part in there too.  I can’t see spending good money on things, only to get rid of them, and then have to re-buy it, if you need it in the future.  Then there’s the whole gift-guilt thing.  I have tremendous guilt, if I get rid of something that someone gave us as a gift.  I mean they spent their hard earned money on something for us, how could I possibly be so heartless as to get rid of it?!

It has now been about four weeks since our garage sale and I’m still having regret over things I sold.  Heck, I still have regret about things I sold a couple of years ago at a garage sale my parents had!  Seriously!  I have a severe condition of Seller’s Remorse!  Don’t get me wrong, I am not a hoarder, there are things I can let go of in a heart beat!  But other things are almost like appendages.

In the end, I know it is better to pass things along to others that can and will use them.  Flylady says “when de-cluttering, to sing please release me set me free, as sung from the items perspective, and only keep things that you truly love, and that bring you joy.”  So what happens if it all brings me joy?  I guess that can’t be really true if I’m stressed with all the mess, which is caused by all the stuff!  So, I guess I need to find that happy medium, because I do not want to be the one that dies with the most stuff!  I absolutely do not want my kids to have to rent a u-haul for my stuff, to be pulled by the hearse, taking me to my grave.  And, I really don’t want to be buried with it!  I mean what would an archeologist think if I get dug up in the future?!

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