photo-5I, like most people I know, have wayyy too much stuff. Twenty-seven years ago, I drove cross country from New Jersey to California and everything I owned fit in the back seat and trunk of a Toyota Celica hatchback. A stereo system, a few hundred record albums, some dishes from Conran’s, some clothes and backpacking equipment, and some textbooks I needed to study for the physical therapy state board exams. That was IT.

I remember moving into my very first apartment, a studio in the outer Richmond district in San Francisco. It had a fold-down Murphy bed, so that was taken care of. I bought some sheets for it. I went to an estate sale and got a few items – an ancient toaster, and some pillows (ACK, used: what was I thinking? I don’t know) for a dollar. My godmother’s sister, who lived across the Bay, gave me two really ugly, old but functional chairs from her garage. Thank goodness for those chairs.

After a few months as a working health professional, I got this couch made of pillows for $125 from Cost Plus near Fisherman’s Wharf. Then I got a little round table for my kitchen, and a chair. That was the beginning of a couple of decades of accumulation. Now I live in a house that could probably accommodate about a dozen of those studio apartments, and enough stuff to choke a whale. I know for sure that every time I bring stuff IN to the house, it is about at a ratio of 25:1 to the rate at which I remove anything.

I am determined to really try and stem that tide, or shrink that ratio, this year. And I am doing it in a determined fashion, starting with my little writing office. That place has been impossible to work in or think in because of the countless PILES in every corner and empty spot. I really tackled it last week. It still doesn’t look pristine, but I did end up dealing with some of the piles, some of which were shocking. One pile was a stack of cartons I hadn’t looked at since… 2006. It turns out they were Christmas gifts I meant to return but never did. Now it is way too late.

But I just got rid of them, thrillingly, on Freecycle!! Freecycle is about donating stuff, like you might to Goodwill, but one thing at a time. Basically, people list stuff that they have to give away, and other people claim that stuff. Some people might ask for things like “charger for a Nokia phone” and you can scan it and see if you have that thing.

I first heard about it when one of my Facebook friends announced she had just gotten rid of a bunch of things. I was intrigued and checked out my local branch of Freecycle. I listed this crazy chair we’ve had since we moved here (gifted to us by previous owners) that is shaped like a high-heeled shoe. This thing was cute at first but now nobody really wanted it. At all. But like a dozen people on Freecyle were SO excited about it. Someone came and picked it up right away. Yay!

Since then I have “freecycled” everything from my 2006 Christmas-gift pile. Oh, except for this pair of pink and brown rainboots. I bought these for my daughter in… 2006. At the time she was embarrassed by these boots and was afraid to wear them because they were not fashionable enough. I swore to return them, but it was too much of a pain, so they ended up in the Bermuda Triangle corner of my office. I listed them on Freecycle, but then just as I was about to chose their new owners, she came in and said, “Oh, nice boots!” and tried them on. Now that she is going to college in a place full of inclement weather and “people with no fashion sense” she was very happy to have them back. So I had to disappoint a whole bunch of Freecyclers who really wanted them. Ha.

But I am determined to freecycle at least five things a week. I should be busy for QUITE a long time. But it feels good to be getting things OUT of the house rather than in, for a change.