So the other day we realised that we are running out of time to get our lives in order for this trip.  Three and a bit months to be exact.  Which sounds like a long time, but considering it feels like we had Christmas yesterday, I’m not counting on it going slowly.  That sudden fear meant that we got started on striping the campervan (which is completely gutted now – yay).

Then one random afternoon last week, I figured it was time to start packing up some of the house.  I started with random crap in the kids cupboard.  Actually consciously packing in baby blankets into the ONLY box that I had packed so far.  Guys why?  Why did I pack in the blankets?  We aren’t having any more babies so why do I need a baby blanket?  And even if we were having more babies do they really need teeny tiny little blankets?  NO we freaking don’t!

So I gave up.  Sat on the couch and moped on Instagram stories.  As I tend to do when I actually have a lot of other stuff I could be doing be feel completely overwhelmed to actually do.

Later, over supper Seth was just mentioning how some of his friends think that we have lost our damn minds for not starting to really do anything yet.  And they are so right even though they didn’t actually say it in such strong words.  We are not doing enough to get everything in order.  But hot damn, that’s going to change now.  I think I needed to get myself into a space where I really start to feel that pressure, to really get myself into the game.  It’s been coming on slowly but now I feel it in full force.  (It’s also why in this state of overwhelm, I haven’t been posting as much as I used to.  Or at all in fact.)

It’s time to get crap done!  Here comes the purge.

Instead on focusing on the kids stuff, it was time to look at my own stuff.  Which is hard right?  Because it’s just SO much easier to get rid of other peoples things.  So much freaking easier because I’m generally not attached to their toys.  Or their little trinkets that they save – like rocks, lids of bottles or that sparkly heart they found on the pavement.  I’m ruthless as hell with their stuff.

But my own…  Not so much.

Now listen, I grew up in a home where things were kept.  Not everything.  But a lot of things.  We had clutter on all the counters (probably a lot of it was my own crap that I put there, but as a teen you don’t take responsibility for that stuff do you?  Not a chance!)  I may have picked up this habit from my Mom (in fact I’m sure that’s something she embedded into my genes), but there is always a use for something.  So ipso facto it’s worth keeping.

Side note, I always thought that was ifsofacto. Learn something new everyday!

Seth on the other hand is the King of getting rid of things.  Haven’t used it in a couple months?  Chuck it.  Don’t like it anymore?  Donate it.  In fact don’t even bring it into the house in the first place.

Which means that over the last 11 years that we have been together I have learned to let go.  I part with things much more easily than I used to.  That seems pretty huge for me actually.  I’d say that I have come a long way.

Which is why I was surprised as flip when I opened the drawer next to my bed.  (In truth it’s actually a three level chest of drawers, but still).  Oh my gosh.  OH.  MY.  GOSH!

Stuff.  So much freaking stuff!!  Aside from sharing some of the more interesting finds on Insta stories, I actually had to tweet about it because it was so ridiculous and I think it’s still worth sharing again because how in the heck!

It actually blows my mind how much crap we have accumulated in case we may need it one day! A thread of crap I’ve found in my bedside drawer. pic.twitter.com/o9SumrMveo

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

A foam donkey
23 stickers that have lost their stickiness
15 hair ties
A broken picture frame
5 books I never read
3 loose buttons
4 empty condom boxes
2 manuals we got in 2007
47 products I used 3 times
5 different mini manicure sets
15536 random bits of paper

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

3 pregnancy tests (one for each kid – if I chuck them, how will I know I was pregnant?)

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

9 ribbons
6 magazines that the blog featured in but I’ll never read again
A baby changing mat still in its original cover
10 pamphlets on how to raise a baby ???
A toy gun
About R10 in change
18 pieces of broken jewelry

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

A charger to a phone we no longer have
19 random flash drives
A cassette tape
And old school video tape
A million other little bits of crap!

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

Did everything end up on my bed? Yes
Did I fall asleep halfway through sorting? Yes
Did I just shove everything still on the bed into a drawer so I could actually go to bed? Also yes pic.twitter.com/DVbKxpRO4a

— Cindy Alfino (@CindyAlfino) March 14, 2018

The good news is that we managed to throw away three bags of crap and pack a box full of things to giveaway.  Yet I still have an entire drawer full of things!  HOW?

But I’ve realised that this kind of thing is a process.  It’s something that you have to do in stages.  We all have those sneaky drawers full of random things – we had three in my room.  We’ve still got another in the kitchen and an entire kist full of who knows what in the lounge to go through.  And that’s aside from like, the whole house that I still have to deal with.

Do you regularly go through your things?  Or are you more like me when you wake up 5 years later and realise you’re drowning in stuff?