The Great Purge of 2012

You may remember me mentioning a few times how I want to clean out the clutter in my house.  Well, I finally did.  My husband and I started “the great purge of 2012” nearly 5 months ago.  Slowly but surely we have been attacking each room of our house and getting rid of anything we haven’t used or need anymore.  Almost everything we purged ourselves of has been donated to a good home.  Initially I was going to sell some of it on ebay, but gave up on that idea fast.  Donation was a much better idea.  There are so many people out there that could use these things more than we could.

If you remember back to my summer goals from last year, my first goal was:

“Clean out/organize the built in shelving area in our downstairs. It has become a kind of make shift storage area that I’ve begun to cover up with Chinese screens so that I don’t have to look at it anymore. It could use a good purging. “

We started with our bedroom closet and progressed to other areas of the house.  We still have a few places left to work on (mainly A’s closet and his toys) but we've made great progress and I am feeling much better about the house.

What we got rid of:

• 12 huge bags of clothes
• 36 glasses (everything from water to martini)
• 6 glass vases
• 1 table & 4 chairs set (from our kitchen)
• 1 parpasan chair
• 1 (very) old radio
• 3 bags of A’s toys (so far)
• 8 pairs of shoes
• 1 pair of snow boots

We also put a lot of stuff into a storage unit (holiday decorations, winter clothes, baby items) since our closet space is so limited in our townhouse.  De-cluttering was a little difficult for me in the beginning since I’m one of those people who tends to keep things (come on, you know you have your skinny jeans hidden in your closet too) but once I started purging it was like opening the flood gates.  I was tossing things left and right.

Time to go shopping??  (just kidding)

anyone thirsty?  I think I have a glass around here somewhere

Kickin' it old school!!

Aftermath

It’s been a surreal past few days.  Sandy came and she came with a vengeance.  We were extremely lucky where we were and the brunt of the storm went around us.  Even though we’re a mile from the Hudson River, we were high enough up that flooding wasn’t an issue.  We somehow didn’t loose power either.  It flickered a lot and we had a couple brown outs, but I’m shocked that we kept it. 

 

However, a LOT of people weren’t as lucky.  They lost everything they own. Their homes, their memories and some even lost their life.  To say that the storm was devastating is a gross understatement.  I’ve never experienced something like this in my entire life nor do I think anyone else has.  There have been a lot of pictures floating around the news and the internet.  At first I was curious to see how other areas had fared, but after seeing picture after picture of pure devastation I just can’t take the sadness anymore.

 

I’ve been home all week due to the commuter trains being suspended on my line.  The train I take is pretty much on the Hudson River so the damage to those rails were extensive.  flooding, debris, etc.   As crews have been cleaning up the rails they found a boat (!) on the tracks between my stop and the next stop to the south.  It’s just mind boggling.  I don’t think any of us can fully grasp the sheer magnitude of destruction that Sandy caused. 

 

While there are so many heart wrenching stories being publicized in the media, we can’t forget that there also have been stories of human kindness.  Neighbors helping neighbors and strangers helping strangers.  Those are the type of stories that I prefer to hear.   Things will be rebuilt.  It will take time, but it will be done. 

 

If you want to help those families that have been affected by Sandy you can donate to the Red Cross via their website, phone (1-800-RED CROSS) or by texting REDCROSS to 90999 which will send an automatic $10 donation. 

 

My prayers go out to everyone who lost something or someone during this storm.

 

 

Sandy's Path (picture from google)

a boat(!) on the tracks I travel every day to work (picture from www.metroinfo.com)

 

what is left of the Atlantic City boardwalk (picture from gooogle)

yes that's a roller coaster in the ocean (picture from google)