The Purging at The Empty Nest

Yesterday, once I had a FaceTime conversation with Carter and saw her smiling face and new cool room in Berlin I began my purge to tidy up my life here. No, I did not go in her room and start cleaning, although it is on the long list of things for me to do. Instead I started canceling things I should have gotten rid of long ago.
I started by resigning from a club Russ and I have belonged to for multiple decades. I have been very dissatisfied with it for some time now and just decided I should stop giving them my money. Then I called the phone company and canceled two of our three land lines. Why we still had any land lines you might ask, but given our very poor cell reception in our neighborhood I thought we should keep one. We certainly do not need a dedicated fax line or Russ’ business line. He stopped working from home at least sixteen years ago.
With those lines I also called a very old long distance provider and canceled them. Do kids nowadays even know what long distance is? Yes, this was something I should have done many years go, but with direct debit as my pay source I just never looked at that bill.
Today I cut my housekeeper back to half the time. When Carter was at camp I had her skip some weeks and discovered that Russ and I are very clean by ourselves. I am fairly good at cleaning things up myself. She said that cleaning Carter’s space took most of her time and with her gone there was not as much to do.
Now I am looking at other things I can cancel, cut or do away with. I love the simplicity of less to care for, carry or pay. I mostly am looking forward to not being mad that my requests for healthy food options constantly get excuses from management. I am moving Mah Jongg to my house where I will be the chef. If I am unhappy with my lunch I only have myself to blame.
I can’t wait to see what bills come in this month to see if I can cancel them.