Dumping stuff

I have now taken two pickup-truckloads of stuff to the dump, and will take a third one tomorrow. Most of it is stuff from in storage: extra T-shirts, logo caps from companies I used to work for, an old answering machine, books from college that I’m never going to touch again, and so on. Three boxes of books are going to the library. All in all, about two-thirds of the stuff I had in storage is going into the trash. And I feel SO good about it!

Back in my twenties I collected any and every tool I might possibly need. Since then I’ve learned that I don’t actually *need* all that stuff–I can adapt, do things in two or three batches, actually wash some dishes halfway through a project, and limit myself to what can reasonably be done (instead of going to heroic efforts to get exactly what I want). So I’ve been tossing all the extra baggage, and paring down to what I’ll actually use. Feels great!

It’s amazing to me how much of the stuff I thought I needed isn’t actually necessary or useful to my life now. Three years of not having seen something really lets you get the emotional distance to toss it out–thank goodness.

This week I am very, very, very thankful to have a pickup truck, to haul stuff around. Esmeralda, you’re the best!

(Esmeralda is my truck’s name. She’s a 1997 white Ford Ranger, and I positively adore her.)