Thoughts from a few years ago about all the stuff I had accumulated...
“Cleaning out the bonus room today. What an adventure. It's full of all my Christmas decorations, boxes and boxes of all that is green and red , actually every shade of red: merlot, cranberry, burgandy, Ruby red, fire engine red, candy apple red, cardinal red, crimson, scarlet.
And a LOT of faded red as well, stuff I need to toss, not even fit for the Goodwill box. Underneath the Christmas pile, I saw golds, oranges, rusts and green. Yep, Thanksgiving decor.
You are probably wondering why I didn't put it all away last season after epiphany which is a tradition in my household. I'm wondering why I pulled it all out to begin with when I was down to just one person in this big ‘ole house~Me. I was determined to have some normalcy in my unexpectedly topsy turvy world and that meant decorating for Christmas to get my mind off all that turned my world upside down and inside out.
All that and the artist in me loves to decorate. With a passion, so you can imagine how many boxes are strewn across my bonus room.
The main reason I didn't put it away is because of my back. It is not cooperating as it should. I almost resorted to hiring movers, not to move to another house but move all this stuff back into the attic. Undecided as I was, I now find myself 4 months before it's time to haul them all back out again, loading boxes back into the attic. Whew. And my back is NOT happy with me.
I will press on. I need to find the sewing machine!!!!!!
It's a funny thing about stuff, it takes on a life all its own. It starts with a little stuff, then more stuff comes along but the old stuff is already there, in the way of the storage closet, so you pile the new stuff on top of the old stuff because you can't get to the place where you need to store the new stuff. Then The Daughter cleans out stuff from her closet and decides to pile all of her stuff on top of all your piles of stuff. I think I have just broken down hoarding in one single paragraph.
One of my biggest hinderers of getting a job like this accomplished is distractions.
You see, I'm distracted right now...I find stuff that I haven't seen in years and I get nostalgic. I love old stuff especially vintage anything~linens, pillowcases with crocheted flowers, old tablecloths, monogrammed linen hand towels. People who know and love me know of my passion for antique and vintage linens and give me more beautiful vintage stuff. And I am well prepared to decorate your event in the loveliest of fashion if need be and I have done just that. I have a stash of stuff, vintage treasures that mean the world to me, my mother's tablecloth from the 50's, my grandmother's antique hat collection along with her threadbare aprons (those two collections I frantically rescued from a pile in the middle of Grandma James' house after she passed away almost 30 years ago... Mama, Aunt Pat and Aunt Virginia were obviously overwhelmed with grandma's piles of stuff and were purging with fervor and gusto like I've never seen. I 'spect my girls will be doing the very same thing one day with all my stuff.
Side note, I must label stuff so they will know how to separate family heirlooms from stuff that what was procured in antique shops and flea markets and yard sales, you know, stranger's stuff that noone in their family wanted, stuff that over decades I found great joy and excitement searching for in this great treasure hunt of life.
And I always make time on my travels to find quaint little antique shops and such. And usually leave with an antique handkerchief or monogrammed handtowel.
My treasures. At the bottom of a pile of linens I found a treasure. It belonged to my sister, Gail who passed it on to me when she outgrew Barbies. It's a coat that has lost its mate, a lovely shift of a dress that coordinated with the jacket. It was made by the mother of Gail's best friend Melinda McCormick-Jeffers Kitchens . I am sad that I don't have the matching purse and dress but I have this coat. And the memories that come with it. Happy memories. I am still impressed at Mrs. McCormick's sewing expertise. It must've been so hard to sew such tiny versions of the most up to date fashions for Mindy and Gail's Barbies. Oh, to have the entire collection.
See, this is what happens to us baby-boomers, we see stuff that makes us nostalgic for the stuff we had as a child so we procure more stuff to bring us back to our childhood.
I've realized another reason for avoiding the piles of stuff in the bonus room is because there amongst my treasures is stuff that I'd rather not see nor deal with. Remnants, what’s left of a 25 year marriage. This stuff must be purged. It has to go. In the same manner that he had to go, quickly and no time for a note. I think that job would be better as a task that needs girlfriends' assistance. That would help.
But in order to get to my sewing machine, I must get back to the task at hand and focus on the happy stuff today. When I get it all put away in the attic and find my beloved cranky old machine , I am going to sew some John-Johns for my sweet grandbaby. I have six grandsons . We go on expeditions called geocaching hoping to find hidden stuff, maybe a note and a few coins.
One day when my girls give me a granddaughter (and I find my sewing machine) I think I'll make them some Barbie clothes to pass on to their daughters.
And I hope that one of these will love my great-great grandmothers’ Bible or my great-great Aunt Lois Kirkland’s antique bowl that my mama bequeathed to me.
I was an old soul even as a teenager when I found myself in the first antique shop. And I adore all that is old, vintage, those treasures that cause pause to think of the person who treasured it before me.
Now that I’m older I treasure memories the most, especially those of times spent with my mother, sister and grandmother.
Now that my friend, is the good stuff.”
