Today did me so much good.
As I sipped my coffee, I had looked around my apartment and plotted the adventure of the day: The Giveaway Purge. Unlike the movie “The Purge,” this event does not include a night of unbridled lawlessness, although I do have a game plan for that kind of purge, too. But this purge is different.
The rules are easy:
- Find a local shelter or organization in need of donations and contact them before you start
- Set a timer
- Run around your house and pull anything you haven’t used or worn in the last 6-8 months
- Wash and sanitize it
- Give it all away!
The Giveaway Purge is all about letting go of old things and making space for new ones, which is the defining characteristic of the fall season. It’s also about adventure, about traveling light, about opening up to the next thing and living generously. It’s about cleaning up your house and clearing some of the old clutter from your soul.
“We can all have as big a heart as we want to have,” writes Ann Voskamp, and she is right. The Giveaway Purge is about catching the spirit of adventure, which at its heart is open and spacious and ready for the next thing.
I learned that while I never seem to have staples like soap or toilet paper in the house, I regularly have seven open bottles of hair-volumizing gels and creams. No one needs that many volumizing creams in their life.
I started my purge day by contacting my awesome friend Allison, who runs a local recovery home for women. The Nest is a former bed and breakfast that now serves as a safe (and beautiful!) place for women on their journey to sobriety.
Not only did Allison say they could use my stuff, but she said they could use it for their resource room, which is a little free store for residents of The Nest to “shop” for things they need.
That really inspired me. The image of someone starting over in life made me think, “She could use this!” when I sorted through my things. Instead of dumping five impersonal trash bags at Goodwill, I pictured women shopping for needed clothes and accessories at a free store.
I immediately started doing laundry. As the washer and dryer whirred, I went from room to room, finding item after item to add to the growing pile.
I learned that while I never seem to have staples like soap or toilet paper in the house, I regularly have seven open bottles of hair-volumizing gels and creams. If they were more than 75 percent full, I closed them up, wiped them down with a Clorox wipe, and put them in the pile. No one needs that many volumizing creams in their life.
I tackled my jewelry next. If it was bent or tarnished, I threw it away. If I hadn’t worn it recently, I untangled and sanitized it. I attached the earrings and necklaces to pieces of thank-you notes to make them look more shop-worthy. By the time I got done, pieces of jewelry that I’ve ignored since 2012 looked appealing. I smiled. 
I wiped down old purses, shoes, a hair straightener and a round brush that I’ve never gotten the hang of using. (How do you hold a hair dryer and a round brush at the same time? Asking for a friend.) I hauled a Keurig out of the closet that I won at a 5K a year ago and haven’t touched.
By the time the laundry was done, I looked at the pile on my living room floor and marveled. I hadn’t expected that I would be able to give away this much. I had no idea that I was living around all these things I never used.
I felt happy and excited as I polished, folded and packed everything up. I was happy to be decluttering my space, but I also felt a little like I was wrapping presents on Christmas Eve.
Allison was thrilled when I dropped everything off and let her know it was all washed and sanitized. I left The Nest, feeling lighter in every sense of the word.
When I came back in my front door, the living room looked bright and clean and empty. Ready for the next thing, just the way I like it.