I’ve never been so excited in my life.
Okay… that’s an exaggeration. But honestly? I’m in a state of bliss.
I’ll start at the beginning.
At the end of May, my son graduated from grad school, and we moved him, and everything he owns, back into our house.
Somehow, during his three years away, his belongings multiplied exponentially. He accumulated an astonishing collection of textbooks, gadgets, baseball hats, shoes, random cords whose purpose no one knows, and enough clothes to stock a small thrift store.
Our house isn’t exactly huge, so as we drove back to Wayne with my packed 4Runner, my son’s stuffed Wrangler, and a completely full 16-foot rental truck, I kept wondering, Where on earth is all of this going to go?
The answer was: everywhere.
We squeezed it all in, barely. The attic, basement, and garage. The first floor became an obstacle course. You couldn’t walk through some spaces without turning sideways.
Every day I repeated the same little mantra to myself:
“This too shall pass.”
By the time July rolled around and I still couldn’t find my gardening gloves, I realized it was time to do something about it.
The solution?
A dumpster.
I researched companies, figured out what size we needed, and made the call. It arrived on a Friday, and we’d have it sitting in our driveway for seven glorious days.
The day it arrived felt like Christmas morning. I was literally jumping for joy.
There was no pressure to clear everything out in one afternoon. I could take my time, open every closet, every cabinet, every mystery bin in the attic, and finally ask the question: Do I really need this?
Loading the dumpster became strangely satisfying. I stacked old furniture, broken box springs, shelves, and years’ worth of accumulated “just in case” items like I was playing a giant game of Tetris, fitting everything together without wasting an inch of space.
I also made piles for Goodwill, Play it Again Sports and Habitat for Humanity ReStore because plenty of things still had life left in them.
The funniest part?
When I told my friends I was getting a dumpster, they were genuinely jealous.
“Oh wow… I should do that.“
“I’ve been wanting a dumpster for years.”
“Last Christmas my husband asked what I wanted and I said, A dumpster.”
“I’m jealous of your dumpster!”
Apparently I’m not the only one who dreams about the soul-cleansing process of throwing things away.
I still have a few more days before the dumpster disappears. Every evening I’ve been wandering through another room, another drawer, another forgotten shelf, looking for things that no longer serve a purpose or simply don’t fit our life anymore.
It’s amazing how much lighter you feel when you let go of what you no longer need.
So, if you’ve been thinking about renting a dumpster, consider this your sign. Go for it. You might be surprised by how much lighter it makes you feel.
Enjoy!
Regina
