Preparing for Lent

I've never given anything up for lent. It was something I always saw as "catholic". Which is fine by me, but I was raised a "baptist". (I put these in quotes because there is nothing scientific about my thoughts and I've discovered so many different takes on the baptist denomination that I'm not sure I fall in that category any more either.)

Anyways.

Last year I noticed some bloggers participating in a "40 bags in 40 days" purge. Since then I've read a few "minimalist" books, blogs, and articles that suggest that clutter is stressful and can bog down other areas of your life. I don't necessarily have what most people would term clutter but I do I have a lot of "stuff".

How one accumulates this much stuff in only a few years is beyond me. I remember buying my house two years ago - nearly to the day, wow! - and thinking I'll never fill this space. And now I look desperately for another space to put the "stuff".

I also have a tendency not to throw things away. It comes from being poor.

When I quit my first "real" job and moved to the beach I had a bar-tending gig lined up that turned into managing two night clubs only a week later.

You can make some serious money in the alcohol industry. But one day you wake up and realize you do nothing but sling liquor and sleep. You don't have a life. You put four years into a Big 10 education and you're wasting away behind a bar. So you find a "real" job. But in this economy, the only "real" job out there is as a receptionist. The income train comes to a screaching halt. $10/hr is a joke compared to the steady stream of liquor-soaked cash that had previously filled my tip bucket.

Poor. And too scared to ask anyone for help for fear that would mean that I would have to move home. Where there are no jobs.

So, I stretched every pay check and strategically added any extra necessities - like gas, so that I could get to work - to the credit card debt accumulated during my year in NoVa. And I became terrified to throw anything away. What if I needed it later? I couldn't afford to go out and buy another one. And so I stashed. And I boxed. And I paniced whenever someone came to visit and touched something. Or heaven forbid, threw something out.

Sounds like several popular television shows, right?

Believe me, I understand how those people got to where they are. And I understand that they have to look through every bag, box, bin, folder, envelope, whatever, before anyone throws anything away. Ooooohhh I understand.

Now, let me just say, I am not a hoarder. I was too poor to accumulate any significant amount of stuff. And I am able to throw things away. In fact, I throw a lot of things away. Now. But. There is still a box or two that hasn't been opened in three moves. And there are still collections and stashes built up "just in case". I have more toiletries than I'll ever use - most of which brands I haven't used in years. I have enough fabric to sew non-stop for at least a year. (There are some who would say this is normal.) And I have enough Mary Kay inventory to get me through the next decade.

And so... I'm going to use this Lenten season as a time of cleansing. And purging. And letting go. I'll be putting my house on the market in the next year and I won't be carrying this stuff, this burden, with me to another address.