Ever since then I have developed a fear of things piled in corners, of brown squirmy bugs running in all directions when you pick up rugs or old clothes, of dust and spider webs so thick that the item underneath is a total surprise.
I know that not many homes get to that point but I think if you are able to find reasons not to pick up something or a reason why it is too much bother to pick up a broom, eventually a home will pile up to such a point where you just don't know where to start the clean up. Really, the only solution is to just die and let someone else take care of the problem, or just move out and pretend you never lived there...
And I am not kidding! Both those scenarios apply to the situation I found myself responsible for...
Anyway, I now find that I become a bit obsessive about things that either have no real use or things that do not necessarily please me when my eyes fall upon them in the course of a day at home.
I got into a sorting and cleaning mood the other day and one of the things I brought out was an old three tier sewing box that my Mother gave me years ago. In this box I keep the memorabilia that is not paper files. There are things even in this box that are due to be cleaned out because they just don't have that memory attached to them or they do not please my eyes. The box itself has become part of the memory, simply because of who gave it to me, so it serves a dual purpose. Just to look at the box, I am reminded of the hours spent when my Mom was teaching me how to sew, especially the memory of her showing me how to set in sleeves on a blouse.
A bunch of costume jewellery -- in particular earrings. Most of the things in the photo above is in the "give to the 2nd hand store" or the take apart to use in my crafty stuff...
Stamps, coins and foreign coins and even a sequence of 2 dollar bills... Well they remain in the box, because they were collected by my son and someday he may wish to have them, if not he can decide what or where they belong. Among those coins are my Father's general service medals from WWII and a Silver Dollar from 1921.
A stack of 45's - The Beatles, Revolution, Help, She Love's You and about a dozen others. They are my husbands. He can't play them because the old phonograph that we have only play's 33rpm or 78 rpm records. He has been watching at garage sales and flea markets for one of the small portable record players that closed up like a suitcase, but so far no luck. But Someday...
Do you ever go through those things? Do you find that there might be things you saved that after 10 or 20 or 30 years don't belong with the things you want to remember? Or maybe there are things that you wish you had saved?
One thing about that box of things -- when I am ended, I hope that there is someone who will pick out some of those things and keep the memories in their own special way.
