P3 (parrots) (Alisa) was a lovely member of Squalor Survivors for many years until she suddenly passed away.
Her first post was on July 17, 2004. She said she had been "lurking and reading messages for a while (all the way back from the very beginning)." The beginning of Squalor Survivors was in 2001. So she'd been reading and lurking for 3 years before she joined.
I remember reading that she had been slowly desqualoring over the years while she was lurking and then she finally made her first post.
In her first post, she wrote that she had gotten rid of tons and tons of stuff. And she even gave away some storage containers, so that she wouldn't be tempted to refill them.
Parrots was all about purging. She continued on in that way and got fully desqualored. Her home became a lovely haven. Clean, tasteful, and beautifully decorated. She posted pictures of her clean home, used her real name, and invited everyone to come visit her.
Members of Squalor Survivors have talked about how after she had desqualored, she decorated her home in beautiful colors, and was available to give decorating advice to others.
Last year, when she passed away suddenly, Peppermint66 opened up a board for a "Memorial Purge". It opened for posted for the month of June, then was locked. It reopened in November to commemorated a special time for Alisa, and Alisa's creativity with the holidays.
It is just open those two times of the year, with the theme of "purging" in June and the theme of "bringing celebration into our homes" in November-December. The rest of the year, it is locked.
It is not intended as a "replacement" to any other board, but, rather a
supplement. The "Memorial Purge-A-Thon board" isn't for theoretical discussions of the causes of squalor, nor does it have a place for long-winded discussions of personal struggles. We do that HERE.
The Purge-A-Thon forum is just a big list. List the items you've thrown away and/or donated during the month of June.If I recall correctly, Peppermint's first post about this in June 2007 -- on the Squalor Survivors board -- announced that the June GOAL is to purge as many items from our home as we can. She said you could choose to list your totals on the Alisa board,
OR you could list them in a thread on the Squalor Survivors board, and she would transfer the total number of items purged to the the Alisa board's totals.
The point is not to recruit people to join a new board. It is rather an invitation to encourage a focused purging of stuff from our homes.
Peppermint has also posted this invitation on a couple of other similar forums for desqualoring/decluttering that exist on the internet -- as Alisa belonged to several cleaning forums in addition to Squalor Survivors. Peppermint has also posted the invitation on our sister site -- the Toss_Siblings community on LiveJournal.
Peppermint doesn't care where you post it. She is merely inviting everyone to purge stuff. You can post about it wherever you like. If you just arrived on this board you are reading right now, and don't want to go anywhere else, that's understandable. (We are all still reeling from the impending closing of the Squalor Survivors forums).
If you just want to stay here, feel free to just post a list of the stuff you've purged on a thread here on this forum. Peppermint will transfer the totals to her "Memorial Purge-A-Thon" board. After the month of June is over, Peppermint will add up the total number of items purged and announce it both on the "Memorial Purge-A-Thon" board and here.
You are also welcome to post in BOTH places. There is no competition here. Just mutual support. I enjoy visiting the Purge-A-Thon board (also informally called "the Alisa board") in June and November, because I meet friends from various decluttering forums and we all celebrate purging together.
There really aren't any rules about this. Just post wherever you feel COMFORTABLE. And you don't have to post ANYWHERE.
The goal is merely to purge stuff. Get as many items out of your house as you can. Post a tally somewhere if you want to. If you don't want to post it, then just keep a running tally on a piece of paper or on your own computer. OR ... you don't have to count the items! If counting the items slows you down, then just throw it all away without counting it.
Some people listed every single item purged. Others listed their total "bags of stuff" or "boxes of stuff". Whatever works for you.
Name Change:Last year Peppermint called this the "Alisa Memorial Purge" as a tribute to ParrotsParrotsParrots. As Fivecat pointed out, we also lost another dear member in November -- Phfoenix.
Peppermint has retitled the purge this year with the new name of the "In Memoriam Purge-A-Thon". It is no longer about any one person passing away. You can purge in honor of any person or thing or situation that has passed out of your life. I think Alisa would have appreciated the focus being taken to something much larger than her.
{Quote from peppermint66}
June 1st is almost here, so I'm reminding everyone that we will be lining up the trash bags and donate boxes in readiness for another GREAT Purge-A-Thon. Last year, we collectively tossed or donated over 10,000 items from our homes. Join us in memory of a lost loved one, or lost time, or lost items, or lost opportunities and let's make a fresh start on June 1st.
{End quote}The "Memorial Purge-A-Thon" is located on a board (with associated chatroom) here:
www.network54.com/Forum/571130/It will open on June 1st.
Last year we collectively purged over 10,000 items from our homes. How many will we purge this year?
