One Man's Junk is this Woman's Treasure

My fiancee and I finally tackled the yearly spring cleaning of the backyard and garage; something we both dread doing but something that must be done. Over the years we have managed to collect a lot of stuff that we don't use; a lot of the stuff we collected we had planned to fix up and use but never got to the fixed stage with much of our stuff. I noticed our place was starting to look like "Sanford and Sons" this was a sitcom that took place at a junkyard. I started to complain about some of the stuff that I felt we could part with. I didn't want to end up on a future episode of the show "Hoarders" so I decided it was time to part with many things that were just gathering dust and no longer being used.

We managed to get many things sold on-line that was great making some money on stuff we no longer used. We were happy that these things would be used once again by their new owners. Most things we sold on-line were electronics, vehicles, as well as parts for vehicles. I managed to round up about 8 bags of clothes to be donated to good will. Many of these articles of clothing I had kept for years hoping that I would someday fit back into them. Well they have been in and out of fashion and they still don't fit I finally came to grips that it was time to let these clothes go to someone who will be able to wear them.

We both had certain things that we needed to coax each other into parting with. At times it was difficult parting with certain items that we had a special attachment to; but in our hearts we knew that letting go of certain things was the right choice. Many things we got rid of hadn't been used by us in years but as soon as it was time to decide whether to part with them or not it became hard to make the decision to let them go. We did manage to part with a lot of stuff but there were certain items that we could not part with; even though we no longer used them we still wanted to know they were there if and when we needed them.

I am more into getting rid of things than my fiancee is he would rather keep all the stuff and clutter that goes with it. I have to say he did pretty well getting rid of a lot of things I was happy to see the back of. In fact he sold this old red pick-up truck which to me was an eye-sore; it is being picked up tonight by the new owner and I can honestly say there will be no tears shed by me when that truck rolls out of here.

This was another one of my fiancee's unfinished projects; he has a habit of starting projects and before he completes them he is on to a new project. It seems that most projects are unfinished ones around our house; from our bathroom to living room and everything in between. So I guess the new owner of the red truck will have to finish that project. My fiancee has already started his new project which is fixing the camping trailer up as he has the camping bug.

We made our way to the dump with a big load of junk from our clean-up. I was so happy to see the yard looking much less cluttered. I am the one who hates clutter so I was the one pushing to get rid of things and complaining about stuff that I wanted out of here. I have been telling my fiancee that we need to downsize as we want to move into a smaller home some day.

I have been lecturing my fiancee on the importance of not bringing in more stuff but instead getting rid of stuff. The house and property we are living at is large, too big for two so we want to get something smaller. The problem with having the big place is that it has allowed us to collect more stuff over the years because it has the storage space to keep all the extra stuff. But before we can think of moving into a smaller home we must get rid of a lot more stuff first. We have only scratched the surface so far but its a start.

After all my lecturing about no more clutter and everything must go attitude I seen a patio set at the dump and I had to have it. No sooner had we cleared out the trailer full of junk when I was loading it back up with patio furniture. I was delighted thinking of the treasure I found at the dump! This patio set had some surface rust and needed a coat of paint; it was solid steel and was coming home with me. I sanded it and painted it orange (one of my favorite colors). It is like a brand new patio set to me. I bought some cushions for it at a bargain shop and I must say it looks great. I am glad I took the patio set from the dump; but we are still working on trying to get rid of more stuff. Hopefully we will get better at sending more stuff out than taking more stuff in but in the meantime we are dining tonight at our new/old patio set!