The Great Stuff Purge, Part 1

On Sunday, fast on the heels of putting an offer on Clark the RV, Trent and I decided to start getting rid of stuff - the physical stuff that lies in between where we are now and where we want to be in a few months. Our current house is small - especially by typical American standards - but we'll have to give away, recycle, or toss most of our current belongings before moving out of our place and into the RV.

We started with clothes and quickly filled up five large trash bags of items to take to Goodwill. I thought this would be a painful process - mainly because I tend to hang onto things - but I quickly realized that many of my clothes didn't fit anymore anyway (I've lost about 20 pounds since last summer). That made the task more straightforward. Too big? Gone. I'm not hanging on to something just in case I gain the weight back.

See these pants and this shirt? I got the shirt in New York City when I was 13 years old - 24 years ago - and haven't been willing to part with it. Despite the fact that I've worn it maybe three times, I've carted it along on at least 12 moves. One reason is because the skyline depicts the Twin Towers, and after 9/11 it felt wrong somehow to throw it away... Like it was somehow my responsibility to keep it as memorabilia.

As for the pants, they have a story, too. In 2004 I went on an epic Outward Bound trip to Europe. We hiked in the Alps and sailed a tall ship from England to the Canary Islands. I bought the jeans during a stopover in London. For years, they were too small; now they're too big and have gaping holes in the knees. It was time to say goodbye, but again, letting go wasn't easy. Clearly I was hanging onto the denim because it represented a really magical time in my life. But I'll never forget that trip anyway, so keeping the jeans is kind of pointless.

Trent cleared out his closet, too, and then started in on old paperwork. We had copies of rental agreements and credit card statements dating back 15 years! (We're a little paranoid when it comes to keeping money-related documents.) We finally shredded and recycled them.

Trent also found a cute photograph that we definitely won't be throwing away. My mom took it in 1999, about 2 months after Trent and I first met. I'm so glad he's still up for adventuring with me!

We have a long way to go in terms of de-cluttering. The next step will probably involve giving away some of our cookware (especially the breakable stuff) and cleaning out the garage. But this was a good start, and it made us feel like we were taking an important step in making the dream a reality.