Cleaning the Attic - Throwing out my Prom Dress

On purging – Part III

Cleaning out my attic. Selling more things.

After cleaning out everything from the bedroom at my mom’s house it was time to tackle the attic. That’s where the real treasures were: the stuff I threw into boxes after high school and after college like those piles of text books and papers I was convinced would be vital references later in life. Those went straight into the trash.

And there were so many things I’d forgotten I had.

Like a giant stuffed horse that was a mascot of out high school speech team (and my speech team sweatshirt)…

big stuffed horse.

Speech team sweatshirt.

And a turtle Mat gave me when he returned from Florida the summer we were dating…


Stuffed turtle.

And some old t-shirts…

Oops, I Went Punk T-shirt.

And old high school dance dresses (I couldn’t get rid of my prom dress)…

Lime green dance dress.

Yellow prom dress.

And my old sticker books (stickers are pretty much the best thing ever)!

Sticker book.

And old IDs that proved that I used to have really short hair…

High school ID.

And all kinds of ribbons and such…

High school awards.

And the first (award winning) story I ever wrote…

Little Bunny's Christmas.

And a whole lot of Barbies (some of which I found in compromising positions)…

Bin full of Barbies.

Bad Ken.

And yes…I used to chew on their feet (and hands)…

I chewed off my Barbie's feet.

And the blanket that covered my bed through college…

&0s blanket.

I ended up throwing out a lot and selling a lot at two more garage sales. In the three I’ve had over the last year I made a grand total of $926.46 and got rid of at least a third of what I own. And that doesn’t include the few things I have selling on eBay and the pile of books I’m going to take to a used bookstore and the table I sold to a guy who didn’t murder me on Craigslist.

That’s not to say I don’t still have a room full of boxes, as I’ll whole heartedly admit that I like things. And I own more lamps than any normal human should have. And I don’t want to throw out my prom dress or a short story I wrote in first grade.

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Hi, I'm Val. I spent most of my 20s in a standstill, unable to pick which path in life I wanted to take. I wanted the nomadic life of a traveler but also wanted the husband, the condo, and the kitten. Unable to decide which life I wanted more, I did nothing. When I turned 30 I’d had enough of putting my life on hold and decided to start “choosing my figs.” So, I quit my job, bought a one-way ticket to Europe, and traveled for three years. Now I'm back in Chicago, decorating my apartment in all the teal, petting my cats, and planning my next adventure.

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4 Comments
  • Katie
    June 26, 2011at10:43 pm

    Wow, what a trip down memory lane. You’re lucky you have kept so much – my family moved around so much when I was growing up that old toys like Barbie Dolls and Care Bears were long gone just years after I outgrew them. Have no clue what happened to my prom dress. And gosh, sticker books…I used to love my sticker books!

  • Ali
    June 26, 2011at10:53 pm

    Wow Ken’s copping a feel there! As hard as it is to get rid of certain things, doesn’t it also feel really good to unload some of the crap? BTW I had 2 Craigslist buyers this weekend & I too did not get murdered.

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