Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Cleaning Out

My Mom and Dad have just moved out of their home of 40 years. That's FORTY years of STUFF that has accumulated in addition to all the stuff they brought with them from the previous 17 years of their marriage and children.

Scott and I (plus kiddos) came to visit for Thanksgiving and to go through some of the stuff to see if there was anything of mine that I wanted to keep. We got up in the attic and dug through so much stuff. Boxes would just crumble in my hands as I grabbed for them. But I did find my collection of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back bubble gum cards - the entire set, t-shirts, and some other collectibles, along with my old Mrs. Beasley doll, my Bionic Woman computer station (complete with punch card - that ought to date me for sure), a Cookie Monster wind up alarm clock, a Winnie the Pooh piggie bank, and some other games that I had forgotten all about that I though my kids might like to see.

My mom gave me, or actually she gave to Hadyn, her play tea set from her childhood. One of which is a pink depression glass set. Once I get home, I'll try to remember to take pictures and post.

Anyway, this week, the kids and I stayed to visit and to help clean out a bit. I have come to discover that my mother has a real problem with throwing things away or letting things go. That scares me, because I can look in my garage right now and wonder how much of that stuff do I really need? How much of it is truly collectible and how much is junk? Will my kids really care about that "thing" or will they just toss or sell it when they clean out my stuff? You know, you can't take it with you and there are people that live very fulfilled lives without all the "stuff". I don't want to be unsentimental, but geez, how much do we really need to keep?

I guess that's why scrapbooking is such a big deal.

2 comments:

Holly (me.) said...

Bahahaha. My momma is a collector o' stuff, and I find that she has many remnants of my childhood still. I have suggested that she dispose of any remnants of mine because I do not want them, but that just upsets her. So she continues to store them in case I ever want them. Okie-dokie then. My children will not have this problem. Which means they are that much more likely to wish I had saved all their childhood treasures. *sigh*

Stacee said...

We are forever having to declutter because we have so much stuff! This year it has been easier because I have finally learned not to buy stuff, so there is a lot less coming in. There are some things I think I want to keep for sentimental reasons, so instead I take a picture of it - the memory is still there, but the stuff is not!