Don't be deceived by the title of this post and think that I'm making an announcement. I was going to title it something like "What I'm Learning About Myself Through Stuff", or "Getting to Know Me in Piles", or "Packing Stories", or "Tales of an Organized Hoarder", but then Amelia walked into the room and looked at the infant car seat carrier that is waiting to be moved to the garage and asked, "Mom, can we give this a baby now? I want to take care of a baby in this seat. When are we going to get a baby for this seat?" I love the simplicity of her world...that we should just want a baby to fill that car seat and voila... I also love that my kids are concerned about getting rid of our baby gear because we may need to use it again. They're right...we may need to, but maybe getting rid of it all will be what it takes to need it. :) That's not why we're getting rid of it. We simply won't have the room to store it anymore.
I'm kind of sad about that. Not having the room to store things. I know...we could rent a storage unit, but I'm not sure we want to. It may be really good for us to purge. I'm really learning a lot in this process. Not revolutionary things. Not even really anything that surprises me. I guess I'm just rerouting my thinking. Lots of life things make that happen. It's good when rerouting happens. We all need it to at some point or another, and some of us need it to happen regularly. You know...'stop to smell the roses', 'you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone', 'don't sweat the small stuff'.
I like to think that I'm grateful for what I have every day. I am for the most part, but I certainly get caught up in things that don't REALLY matter. That won't change just because of rerouting...it will just start over again in a new way. I think that is human nature. I always say that I could live in a cardboard box as long as my family was with me. True? Yes, I suppose if it HAD to be, but realistically, I do not want to live in a cardboard box. That is neither here nor there though...just a tangent that made it out of my head and into this post. I'm not comparing our new house to a cardboard box!
A week ago, we closed on our new house. New, meaning new-to-us. It is nearly 100 years old. The floors creak, the window sash ropes are broken, the light fixtures are old...oh...how I love those things!! Really...I'm being serious. Well, I wish the ropes weren't broken, but the idea that the windows are original with weighted sash ropes is fun. We'll see if I say the same thing when winter comes and I remember how nice it is to have double paned insulated windows. The house is small. Less than 2000 square feet. There aren't very many people who don't think we have lost our minds (or that Tim lost his job). Even the underwriter required written documentation that nine people intend to live together in this house and WHY. That probably did it for me...changed my attitude from timidly positive to determined. That's how I am you see...if someone suggests that I can't, then I can't wait to prove them wrong.
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| Family brainstorming session in the new living room. Everyone has their own ideas of where things should go and how rooms should be arranged. It will be fun to merge ideas. |
We have become this society of bigger is better...and not just better, but necessary. It isn't really. Fifty years ago, no one would have said much about a family of nine living in a 2000 sf house. Today?? Well, we're totally guilty of feeling like we "need" more because we have more. STILL THERE.
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| 4-H and track ribbons from my "glory days". |
I reduced two totes full of "keepsake" stuff to a small pile. I hope I won't regret it. I was torn when I tossed the piles of letters and ribbons and trinkets that all told stories of who I was/am. My saving grace (I hope) is a camera and a blog.
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| Form my days as a Bearcat |
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| I had an entire box of probably 200 letters from high school and college years...pre-email! |
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| A bumper sticker from my days as a "Tiger". |
So...this whole process is good for me. As I eluded...I think I may be a small-scale organized hoarder. Packing and cleaning has been difficult. Not just because it is hard to be super productive when I have all kinds of little hands who can successfully undo an hour's worth of work it under 3 minutes, but because I get caught up in reminiscing and making piles and trying to figure out how to keep things. NEWSFLASH TO MYSELF: I DON'T HAVE ROOM TO STORE THIS STUFF!!! I am a creative person, and I am also thrifty, so to throw something away just isn't acceptable. I bring other people's garbage home because it has potential! (Eye-roll here!) I have so much "potential" here and I can't decide if anyone else will see it as such or if it just needs to be added to the landfill. We have filled our entire little new garage with stuff that we're not keeping! I'm super hopeful we can have a successful garage sale that will find good homes for all my junk. Sadly, there is even more that needs to be loaded up and put somewhere!
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| These Volleyball magazines are over 20 years old! |
And speaking of magainzes...
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| This is my "repurpose" pile...that someone else may be able to enjoy and be inspired by. All organized by categories. :) |
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| This is the pile that I can't quite part with immediately. See a common theme here???? |
I restructured my magazine piles this morning. I am a magazine junkie. I love them. I love physical books and pages, so while Pinterest and Kindles are nice, they don't replace my stacks of inspiration and bedtime reading/dreaming. Eventually I will part with all of them, but I created a pile of "need to browse through again" magazines. I can't help being drawn to catchy cover blurbs like "Get Organized..." and "Breakfasts worth driving for"... If you didn't know me, you could learn a lot about me from these piles.
And then there is the pile of "KIDS' magazines. I think I moved these from Crete to Lincoln to Eagle and now back to Lincoln. You know...Martha really is brilliant. I wish this particular magazine was still in publication. I'm not sure I will part with this little stack.
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| Note: The stack that I'm parting with now is taller. |
I've been fortunate to have space to store all the things that I may use someday. This whole exciting venture has been just that...exciting. There is a part of me that is becoming a little more anxious now because I think I feel like I'm in this mode of "Yay!! We just bought a cabin", and I'm starting to realize that I will actually need to store toiletries and dishes and clothing, and that if all goes as planned, this isn't our second home...it will be our only home! I haven't quite mentally left our acerage behind.
I have reached the point that I am totally fine downsizing things like cute novelty dishes and pans, and entertaining pieces and someday things. We are moving to a house that will be completely functional for us, but we are giving up our bonus spaces: sewing room, office, guest bedroom, mudroom, play room, third shower, exercise room, kitchen countertop space and storage. (Oh, and distance between houses that allows for high-auditory volume sibling squabbles. This may be the biggest adjustment!!) Does any of that sound NECESSARY? Not really, but it will be an adjustment.
Bottom line: we're not being forced to do any of this. It is all by choice, so our outlook IS positive. (But I may need a bottle of tequila when I'm done!)
