My house wasn’t this grand, but it was somewhat similar.

My Marital Home was  large Victorian fixer-upper still in progress.  I  had accumulated a lot of  children and stuff over my years there.   One of my forms of therapy has always been to get rid of things and rearrange furniture (I know, a little weird) .  Consequently  I’d been cleaning crap out with a vengeance after my husband left (so much so he thought I was moving way before I even thought about it).

When the real move was on the horizon, I was faced with moving from this  big house to my new little project where Piss Man and his GF were living  (See Piss, Puke and Porn).    So I basically decreased our belongings by — my guess — around two/thirds . . .   Mind you the kid count was remaining the same and they were/are growing by the minute and although some days I’d like to sell them, I’m aware that generally this is frowned upon.  Consequently, other stuff had to go.

Since I’m a purger by nature I drop by Goodwill often; they know me (even got hit on there).  But since I was already doing this massive move by myself, including getting the Marital Home ready for sale and fixing up the new old hoarder’s house, I was quickly tiring of schlepping my stuff to Goodwill.  I also tired of selling individual items, you know, meeting strangers at inconvenient times, etc. to maybe or maybe not make a sale.  (Sounds a little like dating, but I digress.)  I’ve never had luck having yard sales.   So I started posting things for free.

We’ve all seen those ads, “Free Stuff”  “Moving” etc.  Well, I became one of those people.    I decided to give away everything I could on one beautiful weekend.  I took pictures,  posted them on Craigslist and said FREE — come get it . . . first come, first served.

When living in a smaller space you don’t have the luxury to store certain things, one of them being holiday decorations.   I’d already gotten rid of much of that stuff, but I was ready to let go of  almost everything else.  I told myself, and I was right, that I probably wouldn’t miss it  and if I wanted more decorations later I’d  start fresh.

My kids’ babysitter (now a good, good friend) had given them these beautiful angel decorations — you know the kind with the velvet gown and fur and whatnot — I had four of them for the girls and she’d given the boy  a big nutcracker (heh heh).   The angels had looked beautiful in my formal dining room when I had my Christmas sing-along parties.   But, that life was . . . over.   Still, even for me,  it is a bit harder to get rid of items that were thoughtful gifts from a loved one–  so I struggled a bit.

I knew I couldn’t store the angels and I knew that in the new old house I wouldn’t have a place to display them at Christmas  . . . so . . .  I took a picture of the kids’ pretty angels, posted it on Craigslist and put them out on the street, convincing myself that my friend would understand.  It felt kinda like giving away my four girls, except  my girls  aren’t  always angels  . . . but I digress.

Christmas Angels

After posting, I got an email right away from a guy wanting to know if I still had them.  I checked outside and they were still there.  He asked me to hold them until he could get to my house.

Alrighty.

I mean, they were pretty, but I didn’t know they’d be hot property  — in June.   I moved them to a more secluded place and told him where he could find them.   He came and got them right away.  I never saw him.

“Cool,”  I thought,  “My stuff  is going.”  It’s amazing how you can’t sell something for a dollar but if you offer it for free —  it’s gone.

A couple of hours later I got an email from the man who took the angels.   He  thanked me for the them, telling me that they were for his mother who was going through Cancer treatments and having a pretty rough time.   She didn’t get out much, he said, hardly ever.  But when she saw the picture of my Christmas angels she  wanted them so badly that she rode with him to get them.

He said those angels made her so happy. He was thrilled to be able to make her smile.

He just wanted to let me know how much I’d done for the both of them.

I almost cried.  I’m lying, I did cry.

Oh wait, it’s Just Me With . . . tears in my eyes . . . again.

For what happened when I prepared the Marital Home for sale, see My Panty Drawer/Your Panty Drawer

For my purging of marriage related material, see:

My Wedding Album, Time to Reduce It — Perhaps by Fire

Wedding Leftovers — What To Do With The Dress?

and for what I wish would happen with Craigslist, see,  A Craigslist Fantasy.