I am shakily trying to take my first steps to do a huge purge of craft supplies. We want to sell our house and move closer to my job and out of the city traffic. I look at all of the art supplies I have collected over the last 20 years and I feel like I'm giving away my children. Help!
Marci's use of the word "shakily" resonated.? I understand.? It's the perfect word to describe the dilemma of wanting to get rid of and keep the same items.? As I went through the first big purge here (first, because we are now on round two), my emotions were all over the place.? I loved getting rid of things, like my Cuttlebug and Xyron,? that I hadn't used in years.? I wondered what took me so long.? But I hated selling my Scrapbox and I wasn't thrilled to sell so many stamp sets and see almost all embellishments, paper, etc. walk out the door.? I worked hard to buy that stuff.?
So I tried to keep my eye on the prize -- in this case the prize will be living in a new home.? A home close to shops and restaurants and a movie theater.? I love the burst of energy I get when I am strolling outdoors surrounded by people.? It is so much nicer than being in a mall, where the sound echoes and I can feel overwhelmed.? Or in our very quiet house.
I had to remind myself of the prize this weekend as I went through our kitchen a final time.? Out went almost all cookbooks.? I kept a Betty Crocker cookbook that my Mom had.? I remember reading it as a child.? There isn't a recipe in there that I would make, but... ? I also kept a Julia Child cookbook that my brother in law gave me for Christmas.? He has since died, and it is precious to me.? I kept the cookbook that contains the brownie cheesecake recipe that my family loves.? Although I know the recipe by heart, and the cookbook is stained from use, I love the other recipes and the book has meaning to me.? These cookbooks aren't my children but they have value to me.? The other 50 or so?? Gone.? You can find them at a future book sale by Fairfax County library.
So Marci -- is the future, the prize of moving out of the city and closer to work enough to get you to purge your craft supplies?? If the answer seems like yes, but the "but" keeps you from getting it done, there may be other solutions to help you through the dilemma.
1. Find your "must keep" items and box up the rest and put in storage.? You can then decide whether holding on to them is worth the storage fee.? This is what I am doing with some non crafty items.? Just knowing that I had this option helped and I ended up getting rid of more than planned because I want to keep down the cost of moving and storage. ?
2.? There are stampers who can't afford a lot of supplies.? Or a charity that would benefit from the sale of your supplies.? The good feeling of helping others may be enough to give you the resolve to get this done.
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3.? Think about this issue during your long commute.? Imagine all the extra time you'll have when you move, the ease of getting out of the city traffic.? Sometimes the process of reminding ourselves of the goal gives us that little push...
4.? Or you can do what I did.? Leap into it with no real plan.? We bought the new house first and then I had to deal with what I had done.? While I cannot recommend this approach, it does force the issue!
The readers here may have other suggestions.? Anyone else have thoughts on Marci's dilemma?
Source: http://creatingwhitespaces.blogspot.com/2012/09/marcis-feeling-shaky.html
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