Those skeletons dancing around in our closets deserve our attention.

On the cusp of 58 I had the urge to tidy up all over again. Packing up two sets of dinnerware that each was service for four. Who needs three sets of dinnerware.

What remains is service for six in one set that I bought with a gift card I was given for Christmas decades ago.

The older I’ve gotten I’m aware my life is getting shorter. Hence the reckoning with then-and-now. The sifting through the contents of my apartment that brought on memories of the past. Of the Christina who shopped with abandon.

Others have written about Not Buying Anything for a year. About editing out their seasonal wardrobes to 33 items.

As a person who used to buy whatever caught her eye I realize now that retail therapy isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

The authors of the book Happy Money wrote that the fewer items you have the more you’ll enjoy those things. This has proved to be true in my life. People who engage in consumerism have more financial worries and are less happy.

Who has the wherewithal to spend all our time attending to organizing vast collections. Having the Salvation Army truck drivers come again to cart off seven tote bags is Salvation for me. Not just hope and help for the Army’s recipients.

In our fifties it’s wise to let go of the things people and thoughts that are holding us back. Far better to do this today than to turn 60 and be weighed down with “stuff” of any kind.

58 is great. I’ve learned the life lesson that it’s now or not ever to be your authentic self. That who you were ten years ago or five months ago or yesterday can change when you wake up this morning.

I’m not that girl who bought whatever she wanted. I’m two years shy of what I call the “This is It!” decade. The skeletons are here in our lives to tell us something.

Those rattling bones demanded that I change my tune. Does inflation ring a bell as a probable cause for why any of us would want to buy one or two tee shirts instead of twenty-three.

The material objects crowding our homes can be painful reminders of the person we used to be who is not here any longer.

Far better to live in the present moment. To be optimistic that the future can be better.

To know that we are enough. We have enough.

That freeing up the space in our homes can clear our heads to see new possibilities.

Avanti! (Forward.)