Living in Purge-atory

I have been wanting to write about this for some time, but as you can tell from the title, I have been purging all that is called my home for some time. 

Yes, it is that time of year for us, as it may be with many of you.  We have been purging our house for weeks in preparation for our PCS NEXT MONTH!!!

DH and I "talked" about all that needed to be done around the house for many months.  Then reality hit (i.e. time ran away from us and we realized we had to actually DO all the things we talked about needing done).

We've discovered many things in our journey through "Purge-atory."

1.  We have waaaaay too much crap!!!  That's the obvious discovery.  But beyond this we realized something else:  We didn't do much purging before we moved to our current duty station 3 years ago.  Why?  Because DH was still in a rather acute phase of recovery from being wounded and I was doing my best to just get through daily life and the move itself.  Hence, we have been going through about 7 years of stuff, rather than just the past 3.

2.  DH discovered a bin full of letters from people when he was deployed to Iraq and later at Walter Reed.  He became rather silent while looking through the bin.  I asked him, "Is it weird seeing those letters again?"  He answered, "Yes."  And then I let him continue looking and thinking in silence.  Then he found a letter from an awesome Soldiers' Angel that was dated June 19, 2005 - two days before he was wounded.  We just so happened to see this Angel, Sandi, the following weekend.  DH forgot to bring the letter, but he told her about it and the emotional waves were very intense for a few moments.  It was one of those experiences that you just can't put into words.

3.  I have deemed myself the following:  A "picture frame pack rat."  I have found upwards of 30+ picture frames in boxes that were never unpacked.  PLUS the picture frames I have bought while living here, but the pictures never quite seemed to make it inside the frame.  What the heck?!?!?!  I think I need some serious help... needless to say, Goodwill is now loaded with picture frames (of course, I did keep a few of the nicer ones).

4.  Our kids have helped us purge as well (surprisingly with little complaint).  A while back we went through all the movies in our house.  I wound up taking 3 kitchen sized trash bags of VHS and DVD movies to Goodwill... and we still have A LOT!  So to save space, I bought zippered DVD sleeve cases and got rid of all the cases for DVDs and CDs.  Why did it take me so long to figure that out?  I have no idea, but now we have an abundance of room for storage (and still too many movies).

5.  Our current focus is the basement.  And we have a HUGE basement!  We have boxes that have never been opened since we moved, but I just can't bare to get rid of them without going through them first.  I know, I know, not a good idea.  But I have this fear that something of importance may be lurking in one of those boxes (like our tax records, which you are supposed to keep for 7 years).  Yes, I found them, thank goodness.

We have PCSed 5 times in the last 12 years (and today is our 12th Anniversary, by the way).  It seems like every time we PCS I am doing it for the first time.  I forget a lot of the "little things" that make it easier.  

Anyone else living in Purge-atory?  Have any good tips for me or anyone else? 

Comments

[T]

Happy anniversary! I think it is great that you're purging on this end of the move rather than the other end. During our last PCS my husband tried to convince me that he'd go through his boxes (I made him help me sort through "our" boxes) once we arrived at our new duty station, and guess what? That hasn't quite happened like he'd planned, and we've been here 8 months.

[dizzylizzie]

Happy Anniversary! our 11th is coming up and of course he wont be home for it being in korea and all but he was home for our 10th so i wont complain too loudly.

two words: Yard Sale! i try to do one once a year to keep the clutter at bay. the kids are a great help plus i let them do cookies and lemonaid so it works out pretty good. i get happy helpers and they get to keep the $ from their sales. anything leftover from the yard sale gets tossed into dads pickup and donated.

[Marine Wife]

I put all our movies in a binder with sleeves for DVD's. And because I'm anal, they are arranged first by age-appropriateness and then alphabetically. All the kids' movies come first. And because it's a binder, it's easy to add movies without messing up the organization.

[Molly]

We are pcsing next month too and I agree every time we move it's like the first time. It seems I've forgotten everything I swore I wouldn't forget from the last move! This move I'm keeping a three ring notebook with lists in it of things to do, things that need to be done here and things to be done at the new duty station. Plus any little "advice" that I want to remember for the next move in three years I"ll write in this notebook so hopefully by the time dh retires I"ll have it down pat! I told my dh this time that EVERYTHING was coming out of its box at the new house and if we didn't have somewhere to put it it was getting donated! Oh and I secretly have an obsession with picture frames too. Good luck with your move.

[Xtna]

Sounds like fun...We are PCS'ing next year and we own our house which we had a mile long list of things to remodel and repair before selling. Needless that list has been shortened due to unexpected/impending move. But my hubby is also in Korea and I have found that this is the perfect time to purge.

[Erin]

I'm PCSing next month, so I'm SUPPOSED to be in purge-atory right now. Luckily it's just me, but I need to kick it into high gear! Good luck!

[Cynical Spouse]

We're right there along with all of you in Purge-atory Hell.

DH is overseas and will be home for 30 day PCS leave next month, since our house is still not sold, we'll be vacationing instead. Meanwhile I'm continuing to fix and stage the house. Our 2 year old is learning right along side me and helping with the purging, etc. The Usual stuff for us all

Civilians neighbors are so frustrating. Ours come out and stand behind me or start chatting about how they are so Thankful for what we all (military families) do. Ok that's fine it is nice and helps hearing it. Then it starts. They continue by telling me how crazy I am for doing all these things on my own (fixing a flight of concrete stairs, water proofing the basement & painting inside & outside of our house all while keeping up the yard and the house clean for the realtor). Ok so that still is nice to hear that we as spouses are so much more independent and capable than the average civilian. What always gets me though is they JUST stand there they may even offer help. But ask those same neighbors for help and they disappear & then go sit on their porch and watch me do all the things they just offered to help with. I'm debating on making up signs or t-shirts that say, "Your gratitude is appreciated, but your help would prove it" or the old stand by, "Actions Speak Louder Than Words". ~END of RANT

Happy Purging to all! And to All a Happy PCS!