Let it GO! Decluttering (simplifying) your life of (people, places or things) success stories?

Re: Greeting cards saved and various other junk......I have memories of my sister and I cleaning out our parents' house after they'd both passed away. It was a job that was no easy undertaking for even 2 adults. We started going through boxes of saved cards, you know the ones children make at school when they're only 6 yo(and that was 60 yrs. ago!!), and every single card before/after. We looked through 2 boxes and realized we were getting so caught up sifting more memories than cards. It was okay except we just didn't have time for that. They had a huge basement and attic in which to store things instead of traipsing off to the dump because well, you just never know when they'll need an item again or my dad was always thrifty and didn't want to spend money throwing stuff away. So it got packed. Picture clothing from our baby years(I did keep a teeny pair of handmade blue mittens my mom had told me I wore ), a blue shag rug all folded up and gross that we had used back in 1981, boxes and boxes of things that were no longer needed or of any good use to anyone really, old photos that were covered in mold/mildew(!!). We even found a jar of pickles my mom had made back from WW11 days. Yeh, those wouldn't have made anyone sick.
I have to chuckle now though, because as much as my dad never threw anything away, I had a brown paper bag filled with precious Barbie stuff that turned up missing and I never found it again. My only thought was it accidentally got thrown out because it was in a bag.
I do wish that we had found out about some of the things BEFORE they died though, because there were some true treasures that we'll simply never know where they came from or the memories they held. Several small gold rings in my mom's jewelry box that all had different initials on them. A Navy trunk filled with their letters back and forth while my dad was at sea; they'd been talking about awaiting my sister's birth. Such treasures, such lifelong love. So many questions we could've asked them and known so much more about them, and our family. There were letters from one of my dad's relatives from Canada, all in French. Just priceless things, and I now have 2 trunks stored in my house, 1 with all those treasures and 1 filled with my dad's Navy uniforms.

But I have a story to share. It's long and I apologize but it's amazing and helps me believe....at least a little bit. It involved pennies. As I said, my sister and I were the ones left to clean out their home. My brother had nothing to do with it, but that's a whole other story. Anyways, I was there by myself one day, doing a bit of puttering around, found a pile of pennies on my dad's desk. So I piled it into the appropriate place. Then I switched to another room, in it was a scale where we'd weigh our dad every single a.m. Working in there, I found a penny on the floor beside it. Ok, whatever. Then I started clearing out an old cupboard and found some old photo albums and something of my grandfathers. I set it all out on a bed, then checked the cupboard again, and huh, another penny. I started to feel that feeling of something crawling on my neck. Just then my sister walked in to help me. I explained to her what I'd been finding and the old 'pennies from heaven' theory(which I'd never really believed in because well, no experience with other worldly type stuff). We started clearing out my dad's desk drawers, in there we found my other sister's birth cert./death cert. along with a picture of my own son who died when he was 9 mo. And......ready for it? More pennies. This was all happening within the same day. Last place we cleaned up that day was their closet shelves. On it were some purses my mom had. One was empty, the other had a penny, you know the ones where they cut a heart out of the middle? We couldn't believe it. It gave us indescribable shivers and joy. And still does to this day every time I look at those pennies. As much as we miss all those people not being here with us, we still feel their connection to us, our hearts and our lives.

Sorry, told you it was long. Have a wonderful day everybody!! And just remember, you can throw away the old shag rugs and even those Barbies but do keep the pennies and letters. Some things are irreplaceable.

One of my goals for 2020 is to stop wasting time and energy on people and things that don't reciprocate my efforts. I'm also not going to "force" anything that isn't working for me or doesn't feel right. I'm not going to do things just because I feel like I should or just because someone else wants me to.

I have a card in my file that shows up on Sunday nights that warns the people with desks downstairs to tidy their personal areas. I will dust and put everything back if it's neat, but if it's a pile of piles, I won't. There's also one that tells me to weed the magazine and catalog piles.

I cleaned out my closet yesterday. I've dropped a size and will drop more, and I don't have room to have stuff that's too big for me cluttering my closet. I left two unfitted dresses and drapey shawl-jackets that will do in a pinch if I have somewhere to go in a hurry formally (At least for a few more sizes) and the shirts and yoga pants that still fit. My girlfriend is doing this too, but she's starting at a 26/28 pant. So I packed up the size 20 pants that were in decent shape for her, and gave her my 2x tank tops to wear now with sweaters. My closet is quite bare now, but that's fine with me.

I have next size down prepurchased and hanging on red hangers, and I'm waiting for next size down underwear and yoga pants. I'll sort my closet out every size I go down, since I'm wanting to go several sizes down, and I don't ever want to come back up.

My partner and I just recently moved from a 2-bedroom townhouse to a 2-bedroom loft-style apartment. We definitely downsized our living spaces (no garage, small square feet, lower rent and taking over a sublease), but we were definitely able to get rid of a ton of old furniture, clothes, and nick-nacks that we simply weren't using anymore. The last few weeks have been stressful, dealing with the old landlord and moving to getting into our new place.

We got rid of two huge couches that our animals have destroyed and replaced those with a small used futon with a waterproof/allergy resistant cover. We got rid of whole wardrobes of clothes we weren't fitting into anymore, kids toys that weren't getting used, etc. And sold what we could on Facebook Marketplace for extra cash. And now that we are week two into our new (carpet-free) home, it finally feels like our living space is more open-concept.