The Spiritual Garage Sale

About six weeks ago my email inbox dinged and an evite popped up from our friends who live down the shore. They were having their annual garage sale and were opening up their front yard and driveway to all of their friends and our crap.

YES!

We have so much crap. Too much. WAY. TOO. MUCH. I knew we needed to get rid of some of it and fast. A garage sale was the perfect way to do it. I felt like where we live is too secluded from everything and we wouldn't get many people so I didn't want to do one at our house. (Ironically enough, there is a development wide one happening in our development the same day as the one down the shore. If it were a different weekend, I'd be all over that! Two chances to get rid of our crap!?!? That'd be GREAT!) I considered having one at my parents but, again, kind of secluded and not the greatest are for one. I just didn't think the response would be big enough. Down the shore would be perfect. Multi Family. Lots of different crap to bring in lots of people. Potential for us to go home with lots less stuff!

I've been posting on craigslist. I've been posting on garage sale websites. My friend put an ad in the paper. She's hanging up signs everywhere. We are advertising the hell out of this garage sale. No one wants this crap in their house anymore.

It's funny, at one point all of this junk meant something. At one point, it was all seemingly necessary. At one point, we wanted it enough to buy it and keep and allow it to take up space in our lives. That is no longer the case.

Every time I walk into a room in my house I scan it. I look around and pull things off shelves and put them into boxes or into the garage. I take things out of closets and cupboards and storage boxes only to put them into other boxes or bags that will make their way into our van tonight and eventually on to our friends' lawn and hopefully into someone else's car. I've been cleaning house and it's really starting to feel good. It's cathartic. It's refreshing. It's what needs to be done.

I'm cleaning out baby stuff. The stuff I knew I had. to. have. as a first time mom and the stuff that never got used as a second time mom. The stuff my son loved and my daughter turned her nose up at. The stuff that got used and loved and protected my children and now needs to be passed on because it won't be any good if we have more kids down the line.

I'm cleaning out toys. Lots and lots of toys. My son acquired an enormous amount of toys. Way. Too. Many. Seriously. Just way too many. We have two or three boxes full of toys in our garage. Tonight the husband and I are going through all of the toys. We are paring down our children's supply after they go to bed and we're doing it hardcore style. They will wake up tomorrow morning, get loaded into the car and head to their Aunt and Uncle's house and watch as their toys get sold to make other kids happy. This should be completely traumatic. I have a feeling we might be stopping at a Target on the way home to buy each child a new toy. Yeah, I'm that whacked out.

I'm cleaning out clothes. Fat clothes. Skinny clothes. Pregnancy clothes. Bad choice clothes. Hoochie Momma clothes. Any clothes that have not seen the light of day in at least a year are going. They are hopefully going to a new home where they will be worn with love and care. If they don't go to a new home tomorrow during the sale, they'll be going to good will on the way home. I'm not coming home with them.

I'm cleaning out books. I love books. I love supermarket books. I love good books, bad books, any kind of books. I have a crapload of them and they are coming with me tomorrow. If I have to they are going to be a nickel a book. They are not coming home with me.

I'm cleaning out video games and vhs tapes. We still have a VCR but we rarely use it. We use it to watch our wedding show and that's about it. And we haven't watched that in more than a year. We have a ton of videos that just need to go. We don't watch them. The kids watch DVDs, maybe occasionally a video here and there. We also have an XBox that has not been used since the Wii entered our home. The PS2 gets used quite a bit and as much as I'd like to be bringing down a PS2 and an XBox, we will only be bringing and XBox and all the stupid games that come with it. I'm not coming home with it.

I'm cleaning out our lives. They have been cluttered and crazy for far too long. This garage sale is giving us a great opportunity. We are being given the chance to simplify. To clean out. To get rid of. We're being given the chance to turn the things that were once treasures to us into treasures for someone else. Garage sales are often thought of as opportunities to just clean out and get rid of but they can be so much more. This is going to sounds CRAY-ZEE but they are almost spiritual. In cleaning out all of this shit that has been cluttering our lives we are cleaning out ourselves. We are making more room for each other by getting rid of the material junk that so often weighs us down. We are making room for new experiences and new people to enter and replace our junk with memories and friendship.

I don't think our friends had any idea that the evite they sent that day would so dramatically give us an opportunity to change and clean out our lives. I don't think they realized that the simple act of having a garage sale would be so much more. I didn't think the simple act of having a garage sale would be so much more. I am grateful for the things I have been able to acquire over the years. We have been fortunate. I am even more grateful for the opportunity to get rid of the things we have been able to acquire over the years. It's time to make room for change.