08/12/2026
A week or so before my 40th birthday I started what I thought would be a two-day project decluttering one room. That triggered me looking around my house and suddenly every unfinished project, overstuffed shelf, old piece of furniture, and “we might need this someday” item felt like a personal accusation and artifact of failures.
So naturally I handled this very calmly and rationally.
Some people turn 40 and have a midlife crisis and buy a sports car. Get a tattoo. Reinvent themselves.
I rented a roll-off dumpster.
The first company didn't show up, because apparently even my midlife crisis needed a plot twist. But a friend recommended someone else and by that evening there was a giant orange dumpster outside my house.
And I went to TOWN.
I spent my actual 40th birthday throwing stuff away. Furniture, books, toys, supplies, things we'd saved for projects for four years. Almost every cube storage shelf in the house. (We're almost real adults with real shelves now. SO CLOSE.)
My kids kept asking if I wanted to stop and do something fun. They didn't believe me when I told them I WAS HAVING FUN.
Forget the sports car. Have you ever watched something you've moved from house to house for years go over the side of a dumpster? It's fantastic.
Do I feel slightly horrified we owned enough to fill AN ENTIRE ROLL-OFF DUMPSTER? Yes.
Do we somehow STILL have stuff in a storage unit? Also yes. Ugh.
The only thing more satisfying would have been lighting the contents on fire. Which, for obvious reasons, I did not do. 😂
But after five years of grief, moving towns, moving houses again, figuring out life somewhere new, and all the WEIRD things we've dealt with since 2021, sending a dumpster full of stuff from those years up in flames would have felt pretty appropriate.
The dump was the next best thing.
I realized that this actually was the perfect way to turn 40.
I don't want a different life. I just don't want to spend so much of it managing things. I want margin to create and enjoy our life.
So I guess that's 40.
No sports car. No dramatic reinvention. No actual dumpster fire.
Just a big ol' dumpster.
10/10 midlife crisis. Would recommend. 😂
