Letting Go...Not!

Have you ever just felt the need to just hold onto something. Maybe I am just a pack rat at heart but I do have trouble letting go of "stuff". For example I cleaned out the closet in the hallway. That closet is labeled "Closet for stuff I can't thrown away." Well I decided that I needed more room for shoes..yes shoes. I have to have more room to get more shoes in the bedroom closet so other nonshoe stuff needs to come out.

Well I finally did pull some stuff to give away to Good Will. I have finally decided to part with the following items. They are all over 10 years old.

• The left foot of a Nike shoe. I somehow lost the right one and was hoping it would turn up so I would have a pair. They are perfectly good shoes after all.
  
• My maternity clothes. dirty Fila is 11 years old now. I think I can give them away now without anxiety........I think!
• A pair of black Aerosole flats. They have absolutely no support left, but I had been wearing then as gardening shoes in the spring and summer. This year I will finaly replace then with some of those LL BEAN gardening clogs. These shoes I have the most stress about. They are black and in a pinch I could even run to the grocery store in them.
  
• A set of white Johnson Brothers bone china. I used to be heavily into oriental motiffs and had oriental dishes. I loved that set of china to death and just put them in the closet about a month ago. Made in England it was my good china for many years. Now I have retired the set and have no good china now. I plan to start a new pattern. What I did recently buy was a new set of everyday china at the World Market. Another set to go with my other 5..yes 5 sets of everyday china. I simply cannot look at the same plates for each meal everyday! This set is pistachio and oversized. I love them.
  
• At one time I was going to make a fortune on EBAY selling all of dirty Filas clothes. Kids clothes never wear out and she has some beautiful things that are like brand new...beautiful Easter dressed that she has worn one time and ARE brand new. I have rubbermade bins full of her clothes, ironed and on hangers ready to go up for auction on EBAY. So far I have not had the time to do it in 11 years, so I am letting a few...maybe 2 bins of clothes go to GoodWill. This is a venture I still plan to do. When I am on vacation this year, I plan to put those things on EBAY. I will be an EBAY millioniare. I WILL. I WILL. I WILLLLL!
  

I have tried to do spring cleaning each year and nothing seems to go away. It all gets rearranged and put into new closets. This year I am actually getting rid of stuff! A few years ago, I even called myself getting into Feng Shui . I fully embraced Feng Shui. I bought 4 books and read them cover to cover and walked around my house with the Bagua and found all the poison arrows and worked the cures to the best of my ability. I put up crystals and windchimes and mirrors to declutter my home of things and bad chi. I even bought feng shui candles to burn of all the elements.

Letting go is soooo very hard. I opened the scarf drawer and it is jammed to the gills. Now some of my scarfs I have had since college. I have a beautiful, brown paisley Liz Claiborne scarf that is now moth eaten in some places. When I bought it, I fell in love with the color because it went with so many things, I just can't get rid of it. I do wear it still from time to time and wear it so that the holes do not show. I do plan to clean that drawer out as well and actually throw that scarf in the trash. It served me very well for at least 10 years.

Other odds and ends that I know I can get rid of but just can't seem to let go are a straw hat from the bahamas, 2 dresses I used to wear out to the DISCO when disco was in, (I am saving them because Disco is coming back and I will wear them again), a cashmere dress hat with ostrich feathers that has never ever been worn in 11 years, my black leather mini skirts that I used to wear during my Punk Rock days(Long live DEVO and Billy Idol) and black spiked collars. I also have a Madonna swimsuit that looks like underwear. It looks like a black corset with laces. The only thing missing are the cones. (Do you even think I can begin to fit my little pinky into that thing now?) I also have 3 prom dresses that I wore to my junior and senior proms. Maybe these can be saved for dirty Fila.

Needless to say the list goes ON and ON! I just can't let go. I am trying but it sure is hard! As soon as I give it away or sell it on EBAY, I just know I will need that item that I have had for over 11 years stacked in a closet or folded in a drawer. That next day will be the very day I will need it!

What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~