The Urge to Purge

We've been in our English rental for 2.5 years and it's amazing to me that I'll be making a couple trips to the tip to get rid of things before the packers arrive next Monday. Tip is slang for the Shepperton Recycling Centre, the European version of the town dump/landfill back in Texas. Over here they reduce, reuse and recycle while back in the states we tend to either dig a big hole and bury it or burn it. Or maybe a little of both.

Today I went through both the kid and adult home offices to purge old items we no longer need, A4 sized paper, folders and binders that won't work back in our 8.5x11 world. I also went through the winter boot closet right off the entryway. We're donating about ten pairs of fuzzy Ugg knock-offs that won't be necessary in Texas until at least Thanksgiving, and that's only if we get an unusually early cold snap.

The only other places left for a final purge are the clothes closets of the 6th grader and senior. The younger daughter doesn't mind letting go of things she has either outgrown or doesn't like to wear. The senior is another story. She will hold onto a shirt she hasn't worn since freshman year with the tenacity of a terrier because she MIGHT have need of it in the future. Maybe she'll get back to Texas, or off to college in South Carolina, and all of a sudden that three year old garment she has been hoarding for several years will be just the thing. Sure, it has dust on the shoulders and is permanently stretched from hanging off the same hanger it arrived on from Texas to England and back again, but I'm the one being wasteful by taking old clothing to the tip. 

I've decided to nip these hoarding tendencies she has obviously inherited from her father in the bud. If she already has a closet full of clothes she intends to wear, then there is absolutely no need to add any further items to her wardrobe. It's all about fighting the senior's brand of illogic with logical conclusions. Wednesday afternoon, once the senior completes her final exam, we'll see if my little purging scheme works. The only downside of finally getting the senior to purge her closets for the move is that I'll be forced to take her shopping for more clothes. It's a sick and twisted cycle, I tell you.