Thursday, September 16, 2010

The urge to purge

Yesterday evening when I got home from a long afternoon of teaching and Grace was finally asleep, I retired to the computer room, which is slowly being taken over by junk. I hardly had any room to put my sandwich and drink, and had to move stuff off the chair in order to sit down. The printer has been broken for months. I could not find a pen that worked.

Later, when folding and hanging laundry in the bedroom, I realized that most of my clothes in my wardrobes don't fit me. I have a stack of about seven pairs of jeans and pants that I can't even pull up. Looking to the piano, which has become my yarn storage shelf, I saw yarn that I would never knit up -- stuff I had purchased about five or six years ago when I started knitting.

Suddenly, I had this overwhelming urge to throw out about fifty percent of everything in my apartment: the broken old stroller, old bedding, all of my clothes that don't fit, ESL teaching materials I'll never use, toys of Grace's she hasn't looked at in months, cosmetic products I hardly ever use. This stuff adds up and piles up and you don't really notice it until it's overtaking you. Then I had another strange feeling, and that was the urge to cut off my hair, but I thought I'd wait and let a professional help me with that.

I'm very busy these days with book writing, teaching, and application work, but I think I'll have to start clearing out the junk one thing at a time, probably while Sejin's at work since he hates throwing things out.

2 comments:

Mama Seoul said...

It feels good to get rid of things. It is important to do it before you move so you don't move junk especially since you have to pay for your own move. It will make unpacking much more pleasant.

MommyCha said...

YES! I had the same urge just before the all-day sickness hit me! Tom had actually agreed to do it with me an dwe had a start date. Then I started puking and sleeping all the time and nothing habeen done! >.< My doumi was always great helping with that so as soon as she comes back we'll do it together.
Toys, household goods and old clothing can be donated so you don't feel so bad getting rid of them. I took tons of high quality business clothing home 2 years ago to give to my sisters and mother, the rest went to doumi's "plus" sized daughter in China. It feels good to know that your old stuff can make others happy and you are happy by having SPACE again!
Go for it!!