So Long, Farewell!

This is what used to be our entertainment center-given to us on our wedding day from Daniel.  This thing has survived 6 kids, 5 moves, being taken apart and rebuilt once, and multiple bangs/scratches/markers/spills/crashes, and the list goes on.  It used to have a glass door on one side, but that shattered years ago and we adjusted.  The doors on the bottom cabinet stopped closing all the way at some point, so we just ripped them out and made that an open storage area.  3 months or so ago, the long shelf above the TV fell and nearly broke the TV itself--that shelf disappeared and we moved on.  This unit has been with us through thick and thin, needless to say.  So it was with a somewhat sad heart that I took it apart today, packed it in the van, and threw it away.  I know, silly, right?  It was obviously on its last let and it would not survive another move.  But still.....it has been with us for well over 13 years.  I was sad to see it go.  It's the end of an era.

We threw away 4 loads of garbage-and by load, I mean the back of our van, which had no benches in it, packed as full as we could get it.  We threw away multiple mattresses/box springs--including our Cal King mattress that we have had for 13 and a half years as well!  We threw away old dressers, chairs, bookcases, the toddler bed--that list goes on and on as well!  I feel like we threw away half our house, and it feels so good to be less cluttered than before.  We just happened to notice some of the large city dumpsters in the neighborhood across the street, dropped everything, and started the process.  You never know when those things are going to disappear, and it was a good thing we acted right away-the dumpsters were gone the very next morning.  We actually packed up a 5th load, but couldn't throw it away since the dumpsters were gone.  We will take a family trip to the dump on Saturday to throw away that last load, and then we will be done with decluttering-at least for awhile.  For today-we feel awesome about the minimizing we just did.

And yes, this was a great way to celebrate jared's birthday ;)