Letting Go

I've been purging the home space.  Closets, drawers, pantry, office and walls.  Nothing is safe.  Nothing comes in unless something is going out.  We have too much stuff.  Too much material items, too much emotional baggage attached.  It's time to let go.
When hubby and I married all of my clothes no longer fit in my closet.  I became one of those people who store clothes by season in totes.  It is a tad annoying to try and determine the right time to make the change but the upside is I am forced to go through my closet twice a year.  Does it fit?  Will it fit in the near future?  Do I like it?  Do I wear it?  If no, out it goes.  And I'm at the point where a lot more is going than coming in. And I have fewer totes.
Books have been purged.  I am a bookaholic.  I love books.  I save books.  Many are reference books.  I tend to read more informational books than novels.  And unlike my hubby I rarely reread novels so, I do not hang on to those.  But, I see it is time to let an entire section go.  It is no longer me.  And cookbooks - I have a huge collection.  I read them like novels.  I have gathered a large stack to be donated.  Have I ever made a recipe from this book?  Will I ever make a recipe from this book?  No and no - gone.
Then, there are knickknacks. I made the mistake years ago by saying that I liked snowman because you could decorate with them for the winter - this as opposed to santas which are strictly a Christmas decoration.  I was soon flooded.  I don't think there was a room in my house that didn't have a snowman.  I had to beg people to stop.  I had to learn to tell people if we were out and about that just because I say I like something or that it is pretty does not mean I need to own it.  Two huge boxes went a year or so ago to the tag sale room at our dump.  They were thrilled.  Snowmen are a big seller.  Another huge box went a month ago.  All but a few are now gone. Many I had hung on to because they were gifts.  Would the giver be upset?  Does the giver even remember gifting it to me?  Do they care?  Do I care?
Next up the birdhouses.  I'm pulling items off the wall and shelves in the kitchen to paint.  Hubby thinks I'm kidding about painting.   Any way, I have everything stacked neatly in a box.  I already know some if not all of it is going.  Do I love it?  Why do I have it?  Some of the items are birdhouses and prints of birdhouses.  They're pretty but are they me?  My first husband was/is a huge birder.  We were not married long.  We divorced soon after building the house.  And even though I quickly cut down the woodpecker "tree" - the one he topped and limbed and drilled holes in to stuff with suet -  I soon started decorating with bird items.  Hmmm?
And then there are the Noah's Arc items.  I started collecting while at seminary.  It was going to be how I decorated the nursery.  First I was divorced and then I became a step mom of four.  There would be no nursery in my home.  Maybe, my office?  But, in reality they took up a corner of my craft table.  And now that I'm using my craft table a lot for my art journal they are in the way.  Out they go.
Dishes, platters, kitchen tools I don't use - out they go.
Everything in my house needs a function - be it practical or that it speaks to my heart.  Everything else I'm letting go.
The failed marriage, the empty womb, the skinny jeans, the need to please, the need to be anything less than myself - Gone!
I'm letting go.  I'm letting it all go.