It's been a while since I've written for the @ecotrain Question of the Week.
I have no excuse, I just haven't been around lately. I've been here, but not really. So this question suits me just fine since it really is something I can relate to at the moment.
Let's be honest: in the Western world, most people just have too much 'stuff'. I'm not an exception either, although I've gotten a lot better (read: less of a hoarder) than I was. When my eldest daughter was born, I had bought everything she needed and more before the birth. Then people brought me bags full of clothes. My mother bought clothes. And in our city, there is a huge weekend-long flea market where I bought even more. As a result, I had shelves full of clothes for the next 2 years at least. In fact, there was so much that in the summer, I could have changed her three times a day and she still wouldn't have worn it all.
When my second daughter was making her entry into this world, six years later, I had only just gotten rid of most of what we had. I had kept the really cool clothes, so I already had a few stacks of clothes for the little miss.
And I bought more. And people gave me more. And so the whole thing started all over again. One big difference: my eldest was tiny when she was born, and my second daughter was a bit bigger. In fact, she skipped the first two baby sizes altogether, leaving me with stacks of clothes she would never wear. So these went into storage. I hadn't gone through the bigger clothes yet, because I didn't expect a Godzilla baby, so in a panic: I bought more. Of course, this wasn't even needed, because we had enough, but hormones raging and not wanting to go through all those clothes yet made the new clothes happen.
Then, 16 months later, my eldest son was born. Because I had no clue whether it would be a boy or girl, I had kept most of the clothes I still had. Some could be used either way. I didn't buy a crazy amount of clothes this time, but still received some from friends. Meanwhile, the stacks of clothes had accumulated to a huge stack. At this point, I could have started a shop.
Now, mind you, I never bought anything new for full price. Maybe 10 pieces of clothing for all 4 kids combined. These clothes were either passed down, passed on, second hand or with a discount.
When my son was 2 years old, we moved to Ireland. It was a stressful time before that, as we were more or less 'fleeing' the country. No worries, nothing illegal. Just a toxic ex and inlaws. But it meant that the move had to remain a secret till the end, so while upstairs most of our things were packed or gone, downstairs everything looked as if nothing was going on.
In the end, I didn't have the time to go through every single thing we had (and OH MY, it was a LOT), so lots of it ended up in thrift stores, dump and other people who wanted it. We came to Ireland with a small car, filled with me, two kids (the eldest went on the plane with friends) and full of stuff, blankets, computers, stuff on the roof and a trailer also filled. In order to fill up the trailer, I stuck bags full of clothes I hadn't gone through yet in between everything. Really, every nook and corner was filled. The immigration officers at the border nearly got a heart attack when they saw us coming, and never even wanted to touch the trailer doors...
Still, it wasn't a lot compared to what we left behind. The clothes, I knew that some would never be used again, but I saw it as something I could sell when I needed the money. My youngest son was born nearly 5 years after his brother, and this time, I didn't need to buy a thing...
There's this thing that I have, it's probably because of my upbringing (both parents lived through WWII and were extremely frugal) and that's that I hate to waste things. I will give it away, or bring it to a thrift store, but if it's any good, I will sell it or re-use it.
Now, almost 8 years after our move, I still had much of the clothes I had when we first came here. Only recently, I managed to get myself to actually go through all of it and get rid of the bad pieces. What was left, were 10 boxes full of clothes, girl's and boy's from age 0 and up. A shop would be filled and we'd still have leftovers. I sold 3 boxes of those, making me a little less than 400 Euro. The second-hand clothes I had bought over the years, were mostly expensive brands, and I picked these up for next to nothing, so if you don't take into account the time I've spent on sorting through it and moving it wherever we went, I probably already made a profit. Dutch aye?!?
7 Boxes to go.
Our next move
Since we'll be leaving this country soon, I realized that now's the time to get rid of it all. I really want a simpler life, and we all agreed that we only keep a certain amount of clothes each. Everything else has to go. Not only clothes but also books, toys, etc. etc.
From hoarder to minimalist
Yes, some people have called me a hoarder. Mainly my sister and brother...The same ones who threw out an original art piece by a famous Dutch artist that was worth...well...lots, after my mom passed away. That's the other side of the coin: I call that wasting. But trust me, I've seen hoarders, and I am not one of them. I don't have boxes and bags full of stuff everywhere. Not even close. If anything, I'd be a tidy hoarder LOL. However, we still have an abundance of things that we really don't need, and now's the time to let it go. We can use the money to start our new life, so to all those who have called me a hoarder: I guess it paid off keeping all these things. This abundance of stuff will now help us get an abundance of something else: freedom. And that, I believe, makes it all worth my while. I am grateful for all we have, while I acknowledge that there are too many people who have nothing. And the more we move towards our freedom, the more I feel that I want to help others achieve the same.
Conclusion
Of course, I am not telling people to start collecting all their clothes, books etc. for years to come. However, I am also not saying that it can't be a good thing in the end. In my case, I am quite happy that I held on to things and waited until I had the time and energy to get rid of it all. Anything we have is never wasted. It was never in the way and now it helps our situation.
And there's something else that keeps me from wasting anything. I truly believe that someone who holds on to things until the right moment to pass it on will be rewarded by another kind of abundance in the end. However, I also think that people who waste a lot of resources, be it clothes, money, food, or other material things will never attract the kind of abundance of 'good' things they would wish for.
And at the same time, it's a pretty good feeling to:
'Get rid of the old, and let the new come in.'
Thank you for reading!
