When is enough enough?

My husband and I are in the midst of a never-ending project.  Seriously, it feels like we will be working on this project forever.

We are attempting to clean out my husband's great-aunt's house so we can list it with a real estate agent.  (Did you know that realtor is a trademarked word?  Neither did I.)

Our task would have been made only slightly easier if GAI (Great-Aunt I) hadn't been the ultimate shopper.  If something was on sale, GAI would buy it.  No matter if she already had four boxes of Zip-loc bags in her pantry, if they were on sale, she would buy more.

Unfortunately her shopping obsession wasn't limited to Zip-loc bags or toothpaste or laundry detergent.  She bought/collected/hoarded practically everything.  During her last hospitalization, GAI instructed us to take whatever we wanted and then to sell, give away or throw away what was left.

Most Saturdays I go with my husband to GAI's house to sort through the cupboards and closets.  As much as possible we are trying to donate usable items to a resale shop run by our church, but not everything is appropriate for donation.  The OCD part of me has a hard time throwing away things that I think someone might be able to use, but today I sorted through a box filled with multiples of one item that I had no problem consigning to the trash.

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I lifted the lid off of this box and was confronted with a neatly folded pile of longline girdles.  White, beige, light yellow.  Most with garters, but some without.  All of the girdles were long leg, to at least mid thigh, although some appeared to be knee length..

In all there were 27 girdles.  Twenty-seven.  Seriously, how many girdles does one woman need?  Granted they don't last forever, but perhaps seven might be enough or ten more than ample, but twenty-seven?  It's not as if they were shoes that needed to be paired by color or heel height or style to a variety of outfits.  As these unmentionables were hidden from view, I would imagine one girdle was just as good as another for smoothing out lumps and bumps and keeping stockings firmly fastened.

If I've learned one thing from this experience it's to buy only what I need and to keep only what I use and treasure.  I seriously hope I can get my act together so that one day my kids won't have to sort through my stuff and wonder why I squirreled away nineteen boxes of  pipe cleaners.