My brother and
I are cursed with incredible memories. We never forget anything. In my case,
this ‘gift’ makes it very hard to get rid of ‘stuff.’
We just re-carpeted
the whole house and are now in the process of putting everything back. We decided
to weed out a lot of the things we really don’t need anymore. But…
What about the items
friends made for us? We may not have used them—yet, but we might someday. And
after all, thought and effort went into them.
What about all
the old photos? We’ve scanned a lot of them, but we have nearly fifty albums plus
two plastic file cabinets full. Somehow, we became the repository for all the
family photos from both sides of the family. We’ll keep the ones commemorating
special occasions, like weddings, but what about the others?
We uncovered
grandparents’ and parents’ mini-albums of the formal photos from our wedding
and Kim’s. What about those? We have the large one of ours, and Kim has her big
one. What about the rest?
There are also
quite a few formal portraits of other family members with no children. They are
all gone now, so what do we do with those pictures?
I love the song
from Frozen,
“Let it Go.” I wish I could. All these treasures have sentimental attachments. Some
were wedding gifts. Others were presents for our twenty-fifth anniversary. I
still remember the people who gave them to us. I smile each time I recall these
old friends and family members, and I don’t want to part with their gifts.
Fortunately, we
have a large house, but someday, we may want to downsize. What then?
We are taking a
little time as we put things back in place to evaluate what to keep, what to
toss, and what to give away. I’m sure we’ll still end up with far too much
stuff!
I need to start
sorting through my shoes. Does anyone wear size five wide? And I really intend
to read all these books—someday.
Time to get
back to it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get this done
quickly? Never mind. I probably won’t take the advice anyway.
