Well, unemployment has officially begun (technically, it’s been six days already, but since it was a holiday weekend it took a bit of time to completely sink in). The good news is, my new adventure starts in four days – I leave for Boulder on Saturday!
My fourth of July weekend was full of all the great eats, drinks and lazy afternoon naps that truly define a relaxed lake vacation:
[gin and tonics on the dock at sunset]
[fun, fourth of July themed food – these weren’t at our party, but I wish they had been!]
[general dock-side relaxation – that’s my man catching some rays!]
Alas, all good things must come (crashing) to an end, and today finds me sitting in the middle of my room, surrounded by literally every piece of clothing, literature and general crap I have accumulated since approximately the age of twelve. In case you’re wondering, that is an almost unthinkable quantity of STUFF. My goal this week is to pare down these piles, in the interest of not weighing down my poor minivan on the drive out to Colorado this weekend, but also to generally decrease the vast collection of clutter that I have shamelessly added to for the past ten or eleven years. Isn’t that a fascinating way to spend time? No, seriously, let me tell you more.
It’s a process. To put it mildly.
This week may find me in a bit of a hiatus from blogging, since my life is sure to be a little boring what with my daily wading through mountains of Teen People magazines, leg warmers (I was barely ALIVE in the 80’s, I really don’t understand…), and approximately 40,000 pairs of old flip-flops. Forgive me in advance – starting next week, I have a whole new adventure to chronicle! Every day it gets a little bit closer…
How many of you have had to engage in this dreary, time-consuming business of cleaning out your childhood? Did you find anything particularly interesting/horrifying/hilarious/traumatizing/fill-in-the-blank over the course of the process? Regale me as I go on this journey alone in my house, trapped in our one air-conditioned cell (thankfully, my bedroom).
[taken with my iPhone so the quality is horrible, but…you get the idea. Sigh.]
TESS TAKES OVER THE WORLD! 
Seriously, the pairing down process is a lot easier if you drink HEAVILY during it. like really really heavily. I went through a fifth of scotch when it was my turn.
my two brilliant pieces of advice:
1. pile things on your bed to prevent yourself from giving up and going to sleep
2. take pictures of things you are only keeping for nostalgic purposes. that way, you can throw the thing away that is taking up space but still look at it and remember whatever it is that thing made you think about.
good luck!
p.s. recipe forthcoming
Hey girl,
Cleaning sucks, but I hope you can also enjoy the process! My favorite part about cleaning out my childhood room was reading my middle-school journals (my favorite was a Wonder Woman masterpiece filled with lots of hearts and angsty poems). Also, you will make lots of new memories in your new place, and you don’t need to save everything!
Good luck, mon cherie. xo, Gav
Actually Collin, I would whole-heartedly discourage drinking during this process. In order to genuinely make a dent in your purging, you need to have a cold, logical mindset. None of that emotional “omg but I can’t possibly throw away this half-broken random POS from 7th grade!” that made you hoard all that crap in the first place.
Props to the suggestion on taking photos as keepsakes! Maybe use a separate memory card? one to store all your M3M0RiEZ!
Liz thats why you have to drink SCOTCH. then you get angry everytime you keep something or move away from accomplishing your goals (which is utter decimation of personal belongings). Anger solves everything.