Clean Sweep

Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette:

CLEAN SWEEP

When Dave and I started going through cardboard boxes, I’m not sure who was more nervous, us, or the basement spiders. We wore gloves; the spiders hid.

Recently, with the city’s Clean Sweep program in progress, people all over Emporia were sorting, recycling, and tossing belongings, furniture and trash.

The good thing about having a basement is that it gives you storage space. The bad thing about having a basement – is that it gives you storage space. With a basement, you don’t have to make decisions – you can keep everything!

Well, up to a point. Each time I’d go into the basement to do laundry, my eyes would fall on dozens of cardboard boxes, various odd gifts a person ends up with, and things that simply accumulate. Having an excess of unnecessary stuff in your house makes a mind and a body weary.

After agreeing not to toss out each other’s personal belongings without consultation, Dave and I began filling trash bags. I don’t think either the Salvation Army or Goodwill wants my paisley slacks, a poor fashion choice even in 1991. Out they went, along with purple slacks and the pin-striped burgundy pair. Into the trash went my worn-out Spuds MacKenzie T-shirt from the late ‘80s.

I sorted through the batch of T-shirts that I’ve kept for sentimental reasons. Trips to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, provided me with various shirts which kept my mind on palm trees, sunny beaches and visits to my mother when she lived in nearby Georgia.

I tossed out shirts from my running days including one from the 1990 Emma Creek Classic, a 5K race in Hesston, which took place just several weeks after that town’s devastating tornado.

Some things, such as T-shirts, we hold onto because they remind us of who we were at a specific point in our lives – the 20-something me hanging out with my friends, or the days spent along the coast with my mother. I recalled those afternoons of jogging along Ninth and Twelfth Avenues, remembering that running made me feel as free as the wind.

But, feeling free can also come when we toss things out, when we let go of items that may have been important once, but that we no longer need. The more I threw out, the better I felt. Clearing out old stuff was not exhausting but energizing. Stuffing garbage bags with old clothes was fun. Goodbye 1980s, goodbye 1990s.

It was as if the universe gave me a pat on the back each time I let go of something. Ideally, the best way to get rid of things is to recycle, but throwing away stuff that no one will ever use needs to be done too. It’s a lesson we learn when decluttering: purchase less and choose more wisely next time.

In a drawer I found a collection of things I hadn’t seen for more than a decade: a KU ID card from 1981. And I shouted, “Oh, cool,” when I pulled out the 2-inch by 4-inch tin license plate that was once attached to my childhood bicycle. With white lettering on a blue background, the tiny tag had the words, “Cheryl,” as well as “Kansas – Midway USA.” I’m keeping this. That tag, too, is a symbol of freedom – the joy I felt riding my bicycle as a girl.

Some of the things in the basement, I kept: family treasures, things passed down from my grandparents and parents. I have dozens of hand-crafted wooden items that my late father made and I’ll have a hard time ever parting with those.

I’m not trying to get rid of everything after all, but I am realizing more and more these days, that life is less about accumulating and more about letting go –  not just letting go of belongings, but also letting go of old habits and old ways of thinking that no longer serve us.

I saved things that still mean a lot to me, but tossed out about half of what I went through. A person with storage space can keep valued items for a long time, but eventually those things, too, can become burdens. Even if they’re out of sight, you still feel the weight of things, the clutter of belongings.

With simplicity comes clarity. And freedom. And joy.

Copyright 2011 ~ Cheryl Unruh