De-junking, "Kate" style

After watching an episode of "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" the other night, I got inspired to clean! Kate is a bit of a control/neat freak(self described). On the episode, they had gone back to their old house (which they had just vacated for a new one) to pick up the rest of their "stuff". Kate was shocked to find old shirts of Jon's in the attic, and tons of "junk" stashed here and there throughout their house and garage. So, the flinging began. She went right to town, no questions asked, no stopping to think about it, she just flung. That is my kind of girl!

Inspired by her energy and success, I headed down to our basement, which contains much of our "junk" from our move, 3 years ago. Our brand new spotless basement became the dumping ground for whatever we didn't want to put upstairs.

Let's see, I said aloud. Eeny, Meeny, Miny....Steve's stuff! Yeah, I'll start there... So, I opened the first bin. Wow. All of his high school sports jerseys. All of his post-high school sport uniforms, his autographed class of '84 shirt....his varsity jacket....I felt like I was in a time warp- a vintage store, a Happy Days episode. I pulled out a couple jerseys I thought the girls might want to wear to the football games. Natalie actually "called" the one with the number "1" on it. So cute, to be claiming dad's old shirt....He was actually pretty small in school (and very cute, my Homecoming King candidate)...don't tell him I told you...

I didn't actually have the heart to fling any of Steve's memories, so I went on to another bin....my stuff. Oh, all of my General Hospital memorabilia. Yes, I was a huge Luke and Laura fan back in the early 80's. I had every news clipping, every magazine, you name it. I made 2 huge scrapbooks with all my favorite stories and characters. Okay, I stopped watching that about 14 years ago! There it goes, Kate! Right into the recycling bin! I know, not as exciting as trashing it, but I do believe in conservation. Aren't I a bore?? Well, you just deal with it, honey.

I also found old cheerleading pictures from eighth grade. Oh, you poor skinny, bad-haired girl with too-big shoes. What a disaster that year turned out to be! Oh, middle school, why did you have it in for me? And Jerry, why did you have to be such a jerk to me?? Your relentless teasing is why you never got past 5 feet tall. What comes around goes around, bud. Seriously, I'm just having fun here...no grudges....truly.

So, another trip down memory lane led to not getting much accomplished. I do plan to go down and "Kate-ify" my basement. If she can do it with 8 kids, I can do it too! I love the feeling of purging things from my house. I often imagine a big scale with the numbers going down, as if my house is losing weight and breathing easy. Having too much stuff and clutter around me is very stressful. Even if it's down in the basement, I still know it's there!

Each day I will tackle at least one item and make a decision about it. The garage sale will be in June, for those of you who enjoy another man's junk.
And Kate, if you're not too busy with those eight kids and your busy schedule, come and help me de-junk my basement. I like your style!

(Jon and Kate Plus Eight is on at 9:00 pm Monday nights on TLC...also in re-runs at different times. I highly recommend her book, Multiple Blessings....a great book that made me really appreciate my kids even more. Jon and Kate are Christians, too!)