SATURDAY POTPOURRI: FROM COLLECTIONS TO PURGING – A JOURNEY

For the past few weeks, I have been purging like crazy, and my garage is full of see-through bins with the leftovers from my hoarding collecting.

My previous home, where I lived in the foothills for thirteen years, had much more space to display everything.  I had a guesthouse, too.  And while I told myself that there was enough room for everything, I knew that I had gone overboard.  But I loved it.  In the photo above, this upstairs bedroom was where I took refuge at nights and on the weekends.  I was still involved in my stressful social work career, and I needed to retreat.

I surrounded myself with everything I would need to feel comfortable and cozy.  I had a microwave, a mini-fridge, and a coffee pot.  And that wicker bed tray that I somehow lost along the way.  Where did it go?

In my efforts to downsize, I think I gave it away.

Here is another bedroom where I retreated…later on, and after I was the only one left in my house, with only the guesthouse inhabited with family members.  I didn’t need to hide quite so much.

 

 

I had a doll collection sprawling over every available shelf, in addition to the Boyd’s bears I started collecting in the Year 2000.  Back then, I started with one…a cute one I found in a little shop that would soon become my “second home.”  From there, the collection expanded.

And next to my old desktop computer, where I created my first five novels, I settled my little friends in around me, to serve as my muses.  (You can’t even see the computer in this photo!  It is to the left).

 

Here is a close-up:

 

 

 

Can we say “cluttered?”  BTW, the name of the store where I found most of my stuff was Country Clutter.  A couple of years later, it would morph into Apricot Lane.  It has now gone out of business, at least in the mall where I shop…and that is probably a good thing.

I started downsizing stuff, and accumulating a lot of these friends in my bins when I moved into my condo seven years ago.  With this much smaller space, I had to leave many things in garage storage in order to survive.

But my recent purging has led to a much less cluttered space, while still offering the feeling of my “friends” around me.

 

 

And below, notice how much tidier my desk space is now.  Well, better, but probably more STUFF than most people have…LOL.

 

 

 

Do you look back at your various homes and how you decorated them over the years?  Do you discover that you have made significant changes?  Or maybe you are comfortable with as little change as possible.

I love having the photos to help me remember my journey.

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