Purge #2

I should have titled the "Garage Cleaning" post as Purge #1, but didn't. Anyways, we are working on Purge #2 at our house. What do I mean you ask? I mean taking out everything from the guest room to make it a kids room. It has been quite the challenge. We didn't want to just pile all that crap , I mean important belongings into the garage. We are already "those" people that store their inexpensive stuff in the garage as opposed their cars; we just didn't want to make it worse. John is really trying to make sure he gets to keep at least half of the garage for his wood shop. We had to go through lots of items we have been storing here and there in closets for years. 

Now you might remember be saying John is a collector. I have to sadly admit I too collect something. Everything from 6 years of college. I have every text book, binder, power-point, research article, everything from undergrad and graduate school. I have a good reason, or so I thought. When SLPs go to college everything we could possibly work with is briefly and quickly hurled at you. You have a short amount of time to learn oodles. You sit there in class being told, "Hey, you might see this so you better know how to treat it." Clearly most of us only remember what we need to in order to pass our big exam and what we use regularly at work. So the rationale was, I shall keep everything and when I come across something I don't remember I shall retrieve my old textbooks, binders, power-points, and research articles. How many tubs of this non-sense do I have you may ask? Oh, in the neighborhood of 5 or so. That takes up a crazy amount of space. 

So I took a poll at work. I asked some of the seasoned SLPs if they had any of this stuff still and if they ever needed it or used it. I was met with a resounding "no." One asked me how long I had been out of school. When I told her 2 years, she said "well most of what you learned is already outdated." That was the kick in the pants I needed, and of course the fact that I am officially out of space at my house. 

None of this is what John wanted to hear because it meant he had to bring all of those boxes into the house for me to go through. One evening while going through all this I asked him why he left one in the garage. He said, "Well it was really full, so......" I think what he was hoping I would respond with was something like, "okay well since it is full I will keep all that". That is not what I said. Again, he was not so happy. While going through this stuff it became apparent........There is no way I would have ever found or remembered having most of that stuff. I would like to say that made it easier to throw away, but it didn't. As I was going through it I kept thinking, "Oh I remember that now, or I should really re-read this because I need to know it." I know, this instills an incredible amount of faith into my professional competency. 

After having my walk through academic memory lane, I decided to throw the majority of it away. I condensed 5 boxes into 1.  A feat I would have never thought possible. I think it really motivates a gal when you realize you are out of options if you ever want to make the kids' room look like a kids' room. 

We still need to do home repairs, get things in order based on state standards like cleaning products and medicines, and furnish the kids' room. We are quickly running out of time. Our social worker informed us she still thought we would be licensed by end of June or so. Fear and excitement are really the only two emotions I have right now when thinking about all of this.