Onion Layers

For the first 25 years or so of my life, I was a pretty average American. I bought things when I needed them, and, generally, when I wanted them. I was given gifts, which I kept, even when I didn't like them all that much. I was offered things for free ("someone else's trash") and I took it because I might need it, someday.

I was never a shopaholic or a hoarder or over the top in my collection of "things", in fact, since I moved around the country every few years, I made a regular effort to not collect clutter.

About the time that I discovered I was broke, I started selling in yard sales. I recall one, when I was trying to raise the money to pay the lawyer to declare bankruptcy, where I took 90% of my personal possessions and set them out on the driveway in front of my apartment and sat all day, selling whatever I could. What was left over, went back inside my home, and that was what I kept ~~ That's right, my home was filled with things other people wouldn't offer a quarter for. And it was still full.

When my parents relocated from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, and downsized in the process, they made a stop along the way to give me boxes, and boxes, of "stuff" from their attic. Dancing trophies and photo albums and school work and a refrigerator size box stuffed with stuffed animals. Oh, and the all-important shoeboxes overflowing with key chains.

My mom is going to read this and open her mouth to disagree with my tone, so let me make clear, everything they gave me was something I said "no, don't get rid of that, I'll take it."

After that, I didn't really want to buy anything new. I was too broke to afford much, shopping was thoroughly depressing, and I was driven to pay back everything and everyone I could. So not a lot new came into the house, though, let's be honest, things did come in. The ratio of "clearance" items, "great buys from Goodwill" and even "Teresa, I don't want this anymore, but I think you're like it" compared to actual new items, however, switched up dramatically.

A few years post-bankruptcy, when I had the paying-off-debt thing down pat, I moved. I moved a LOT of stuff! I couldn't understand where it all came from! I had been BROKE for four years and yet suddenly I needed the extra-long U-Haul?!? How had this happened?

When I got to my new city, I began a mission to shed myself of things that you could say "I don't want this, I just didn't want to give up anything ELSE when I was so broke."

I either wanted to use something or get rid of it. I would be a Gypsy again, able to move everything I owned at one time, in the back of my Aztec. No U-Haul needed!

For home decorations, I used the things I already had.....those stuffed animals my parents brought from Massachusetts spread out over kitchen cabinets, Mary Moo-Moo's littering the entertainment stand, and Breyer's horses looking down from the top of the bookcase. (Yes, it IS a miracle I got a boyfriend with decor like that.)

Every few months, for 16 months, I would go through a cabinet or a closet and find a load of things to give to Goodwill. Things that should never have made the moved....I didn't even OWN a twin bed, so, why all the sheets?

I would feel like I had pared down amazingly well, then a few months later open a cupboard door and wonder why I still had a blender when I hadn't actually used it ...umm...ever. (Maybe once in college when I was going to make my own healthy smoothies but I bought the Whey powder and it was NASTY!) Then I would spend a Friday night rifling through everything again and find I had another big load to give away.

When we decided to move in together, I went at it even more hard-core. Two complete households were going to be sharing a 700sq foot home, after all. That is what pushed me to get rid of a lot of thing....items like my futon, which regularly fell apart could be given away. Being practical, this wasn't because I was thinking "We're going to live together forever and I will never need my own furniture again" but instead it was "I have the money in savings to buy a new couch, one befitting at 30-year-old woman, not a college kid, if needed."

Even so, certain things I didn't need while living with him I saved...in case I moved out again, we wouldn't need to replace. So my dishes went into storage and my vacuum, my nicer furniture and a few other items we were doubled up on. I sold a few other things, as well.

The house was still too crowded. Regularly he and I go through our items and load up a box or two for Goodwill. Before we make a purchase we run it past each other -- will it get used or just be clutter? If we buy this item can we get rid of anything else?

In the spring, we had a yard sale, and sold so many things our neighbor came over to ask "How did all this FIT in your house?!?" Much of this was the items we had kept duplicates of in case we went our separate ways. We trimmed down to one set of most things.

Items that did not sell did go back into storage. Things were sold on Craigslist or to friends, and carload after carload headed out to Goodwill.

Despite ALL of my giving items away, I am still peeling the layers of that onion, still finding that I have items today that I don't really need to save. Just this weekend I went through my sewing kit and scaled down the needles and pins to one box of each.... and discovered an old candy tin filled with thimbles. I don't even USE a thimble. In the end, just getting rid of the things that were definitely not needed, not usable (bent needles? ), I was able to trim my sewing collection from three shelves to one shelf.

Later that same day, I discovered we are in possession of two hand mixers, three stick blenders and five various types of whisks. A) I think I should stop asking for that Kitchen-Aide Stand Mixer, and B) I think there are a few more layers to go!