All of my roommates are moving out this week. My house always has the most drama on the block—the most cars out front, the rowdiest parties in the backyard. But over the past month, it’s gone over the top. For my wedding, there were dozens of cars in and out of my driveway every day. Now the guys are all moving out, so the driveway is loaded with four cars and a huge U-Haul.

Since there are 3 guys moving out, they’ve each recruited a distinct group of friends and family members to help them out. This mob of people has taken over my house, making laps up and down the stairs with stacks of brown boxes. I feel like I’m in the early scene of Home Alone when Kevin’s extended family has turned his house into chaos.

I need to get this out about Home Alone. There’s a scene early in the movie where the pizza deliver boy defends the $140 bill to Kevin’s dad by explaining that it’s 14 pizzas at $10 per pizza. I was 12 when I saw that scene, and I couldn’t imagine the big city life where pizzas actually cost that much money. Everytime I ordered pizza from then on, I’d think about that scene, wondering when that magical day will come where I paid double digits for a single pizza. In the 17 years since I first saw that movie, it hasn’t happened once.

This afternoon after the Suns beat the Lakers (now we’re up 3 games to 1), I started getting high on the thought of getting rid of clutter in the house that isn’t mine. One habit of my daily life is constantly getting rid of things that I no longer need. On any given week, I spend 2 hours getting things out of my house: donating, trashing, and recycling. Maher does this about once every 2-6 years. When I’m on one of my purging expeditions through the house, I always have to stack his stuff in the corner because I can’t get rid of it. It hit me that I could do a purging finale, the greatest of all purgings.

The project started simple, but quicky got out of hand. This house has about six versions of the same kitchen utensil. So if you have a golden brown grilled cheese sandwich that you need to flip, you can use any of the six spatulas. Since our household is so trendy, they’re each half black and half stainless steal. So I emptied dozens of utensils out of the drawer and sorted them out on the countertop, the same way you’d organize a deck of cards. I kept one of each, eight total. This was so outrageously satisfying that I kept going through the kitchen, one drawer and cabinet after another.

Three hours later, I had packed up three large boxes with pots, pans, cups, coffee mugs, and storage containers.

I emptied the junk drawers of all of Maher’s technostuff: iPod accessories, microphones, CDs, and dozens of AA batteries. I looked at the DVD cabinet like a cheetah looks at an impala. I organized and sealed up three boxes of sci-fi movies that I never have to see again. (Finally!) The only things that were mine were some episodes of the Real World Road Rules Challenge and a season of The Simpsons. I have so many empty drawers now. I knocked out half of the books on my shelves. Now there’s no books on music, only books about design and religion.

All in all, I got rid of at least 400 pounds of stuff today. Awesome.

I kind of feel like a Dad whose kids are moving out of the house. They’re all off to the next chapter in their life. I wave goodbye at the driveway then step back in the house, lock the door, and keep watching the NBA playoffs. My life is comfortable because I’ve worked hard to make it that way.