Sydney Avey

Dynamic Woman — Changing Times

The Great Giveaway is gone–time to celebrate!

Nov 29, 2016 | Great Giveaway | 0 comments

 

a lightness of beingThe Great Giveaway is over and gone.  Gone in 365 days–365 personal possessions; that was the goal. But how was I to rid myselfof stuff when the majority of it lives in the mountains and I have retreated to the desert for six months?  On October 31st I treated myself and took this self-imposed duty off my To Do list. (Yes Virginia, I see that smile on your face.)

I have achieved my fundamental goal. I feel lighter for living with less, purged of possessions (physical and mental) that outlived usefulness. Heading into the holiday season, I want to focus on other things. Traditional holiday celebration, by the way, hit my list on October 31. My last entry. There will be celebration, just not traditional.

An exercise in motivation

I have donated, pawned off, and tossed more than 365 items. The one-a-day stipulation was an exercise in motivation to keep the purge top of mind. It worked. I have established a habit of questioning the tenure of every dust accumulating object my eyes light on.

Of course, the giveaway involved more than physical objects. I axed email subscriptions, deleted unused apps and stopped services. The end result of the entire exercise is that I feel less burdened and more in control.

In the past, when I opened the closet and saw boxes of unsorted photographs stacked on  a tower of old photo albums my spirits sank. Now, I am very close to one book shelf of albums that tell our story. And only one binder of recipes, culled from a multitude of binders, files and folders. The rest? All gone. I’ve been a busy girl!

Get radical  

How does one muster the courage to get rid of the accumulation of a lifetime (or several lifetimes if you have inherited an estate)? It helps to channel some inner “bad” attitudes. Get radical. Let your suppressed dissident out. Who says you have to keep all this stuff?  Destroy the paper trail with glee (after you have plugged your family records into Ancestry.com).

For the record, you might want to scan historically valuable documents, unless you are a famous person. If you anticipate that someday a Ph.D. candidate might want to dig into the archives of your life and write a book, then offer your personal records to your local library or museum. If they don’t accept your donation, that will be a clue.

Your grandmother’s drivers license and social security card? C’mon. Once you have shredded that,  toss your Dad’s high school graduation certificate. Heck, toss your own. Anyone who wants proof that you graduated from high school is undeserving (unless you are 18 and looking for an entry level job.)

Seniors, give the monster artificial Christmas tree away. Let a younger person risk back injury setting it up. They heal faster.  (Hard-hearted, I know.)

All the power supplies and connector cords that have dissociated themselves from their devices and are conspiring in a bottom drawer? Out! If, at a later date, you locate the now powerless device (likely an old video tape player), a special place awaits useless electronics at your local transfer station.

The biggest payoff

The biggest payoff in this exercise was ditching the nightly news. We managed to keep ourselves informed without the daily “sky is falling” drama. In the end, we pulled the plug on all broadcast programming in favor of internet TV.  The health benefits (lower blood pressure) of banishing offensive advertising and fear mongering news reporters from our living room is enormous.

All in all, a worthy undertaking. Time to celebrate.

 

 

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Crafting a Novel Around a Real Person: An Interview with Sydney Avey – WRITE NOW!

Crafting a Novel Around a Real Person: An Interview with Sydney Avey – WRITE NOW!

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