Purging.......

In a good way. I have a lot of crap. Like TONS. I think when you buy a big house, all you do is fill up the space with a lot of poo. Stuff that doesn't matter. But somehow you develop an emotional attachment to it and can't let it all go.

Case in point: My home in Belleville with Troy was about 2500 square feet, with another 1000 or so in the basement. Chock full of crap. Good crap - but crap just the same. When we filed for divorce and I was moving to Mexico and all that jazz, we realized for the first time how insigificant all that crap was. We had a garage sale for a few weekends - sold about $1000 worth of stuff, plus another $2000 in fish tank stuff we had......then donated another $2000 worth of stuff to Goodwill.

Crap I tell you - just crap!

So Troy took his half and I took my half, and even after getting rid of **ALL THAT STUFF** I still had plenty to fill a 1200 sq ft condo down here. YIKES! Thats still alot of crap!!!! I've managed to purge a lot of it - but its just shoved in the Maid's quarters for now.

So, when I repatriate to Chicago in February, Pat O'Brien and I will be living together in a 900 sq ft condo......with both of our stuff. There is just no possible way it will all fit! We walked around my place on Sunday night just noting things that we will need in the condo, stuff we don't, stuff to give to family and stuff that can go in storage (because we probably will have a house someday - it will be hard to fit the 20 kids we will have into a small two bedroom condo). It was rather frightening - looking, AGAIN, after all the purging I've done, at ALL THE CRAP I HAVE!!!!!

I would rather give it all away, you know? Whats the sense in packing it all just to unpack it and give it away in the US? I've looked and asked repeatidly for an organization to donate too, but there isn't a presence here in Mexico like there is in the US. I couldn't find Goodwill, or Salvation Army. Really, I think there is more of a need for them here!

Last weekend, when Keith, Pat O'Brien and I went to the mall, there was a kids choir singing songs right along side a familiar sight - a Salvation Army collection kettle (no bell ringer though - just kiddos singing)! Except it was called Ejercito de Salvación....which is why I couldn't find it in the phone book or online! I donated a few pesos, and picked up a little paper next to it - which had a phone number and message saying they accept ALL KINDS OF DONATIONS!!!!! I was soooo excited! So I called yesterday and they said they do come and pick up any donations, and also give reciepts for taxes and such.

YIPPIE!!!

So, yesterday I started the Purge of All Purges! I did a lot of my clothes - but still need to hit the T shirts and exercise stuff. Then I'll work through the kitchen, and then the office area. I want to get all the tax break I possibly can, so I'm going to catalogue the stuff I already have separated in the Maids quarters. I'm planning on having this done by Sunday, so then I can call them to come by and pick up during the week.

I need to watch more epsiodes of "Clean Sweep" to get me motivated. I love that show!!!! And I know I will feel a lot lighter, and a lot more free, when I let go of all this stuff that is holding me down!