August 26, 2007

• Keep...Toss...Donate..............

  I was just reading about a fellow xangans attempt to deal with collections and clutter. Well, in my world, I was the major culprit, and it had very little to do with being artistic, as has been suggested. There's lots of stuff and lots of reasons:

  First off there are the family heirlooms. Handed down through the generations, the line getting slimmer and slimmer, until ther are just a couple of us to inherit 6-8 peoples' lifetime of paintings, jewelry, books, dishes, furniture, misc collections and paperwork. I don't mean bank statements, I mean birth certificates from foreign countries, citizenship papers on fancy schmancey paper. Daguerotypes in beautifully tooled leather frames. Civil war stuff. Art deco jewelry. My grandmothers' tea cups. Just stuff and more stuff.......except to me.

  Then there's my husband's stuff. Not a lot, mostly books. Last Christmas, the first since his going, I gave each of his family members, down to the newest baby, a book from his collection, and there's more, way more than enough left to do it again this year. (but I won't) Art books. Everything Edward Abbey has written. Civil war fiction and non-fiction. Old sci-fi books. His prized possession, the Harvard Classics. Beautiful books about the desert, and historic Indian sites and practices. All sorts of history books. Then, there're the computer manuals, and the game stuff, and pieces of this , and parts to that. Stuff that I will never use. (don't worry, geeks, I will make sure they get a good home with someone who cares). There's also his art supplies. We're talking SUPplies: Pastels; easels; leather portfolios; drawing sets; Dremel tools; pads of, pads of, pads of paper; canvases; and many completed and half-completed pieces.

  The next category, we'll call: The Stuff She Left Behind. Who the heck gave her all those stuffed animals, and then there was the Auntie who crocheted all the characters from the Wizard of Oz, also made Hansel and Gretel, and a six foot clown. Let us not forget the dollhouse, 30 or so ML Ponies, countless games, a few barbies and 3,000 barbie shoes, a kajillion legos, and at least two bikes. Lots of early artwork and (precious to me) writing pieces. The children's books are staying. The rest....hmm-m-m?

  Then there's my stuff (besides the heirlooms). My coloring books, knitting stuff, sewing stuff, lots of embroidery stuff, all sorts of rocks, many Wade animals, or little stone animals, especially turtles (Are you a Turtle?). Pens, I love all the new colors in gel, I have quite the assortment of rings and a stamp collection that I've inherited. Oh, and let's not forget the empty boxes and the bubble wrap. ( I might have to mail something)

  Okay, so that pretty much takes care of the stuff. Now, on to the paperwork. In the past 5 years I have been in charge of 4 Estates. Do you have any idea how much paperwork that is? A lot, big bunches, a waste of more than a few trees. Then there's the Insurance company "This is not a bill/Keep for your records" crap; Tax returns for the past millenium and their W-whatevahs; planning board notices and condo assoc. announcements; social security pummelings; investment chuckles and bank haikus.

  What to do - - what to do? When the kid moved out, her room became the catch-all spot. When in doubt throw it in, shut the door. By the time a couple of years had passed, you couldn't walk in there without moving stuff: Clothes; out of use tapes and cassettes; overflow of tupperware; old set of pots and pans; useless gifts; photo albums and boxes of pictures; two file boxes of school stuff; kids old comforters w/curtains. Do you get my drift? When you saw it, you just couldn't imagine where to begin. The kid came home one weekend and I sent her in there to at least get her stuff organized. Right. I checked on her after about 3 hours and she had pushed a bunch of stuff aside and had piled up some other stuff (not in any order). She had herself a little spot on the floor and she had beautifully arranged most of my smaller stones into a lovely display. Groovy. useless..but Groovy.

  My dahlin' had finally had enough. On my next trip away, 3-4 weeks, He took one of his hissy fits and started throwing stuff out. A sewing machine (I did have two); some of my clothes; some fabric; all sorts of stuff. But before he got too far, he and I made a plan that suited us both. He bought 8 good size plastic buckets. Without particularly sorting anything, he took everything that was left and loaded them up. He emptied the 2 catchall drawers in the kitchen and another horror of a utility closet with a dead freezer in it. He hung all kinds of those wire organizer shelves in the closet. In the 'Junk' room, he built himself a desk with shelves, put more shelves on another wall, moved in an old bureau, piled up the buckets, and waited for me to come home.

  It really worked pretty well. After I perused all the buckets, to find out what I was dealing with, I would open one at a time. I would sort through, and toss, keep, or donate the contents. Whatever I kept, had to find a place and stay there. Within a couple of weeks we were down to 3 buckets, and they were mostly gifts that I had to give and some heirlooms that hadn't found places yet.

  Eventually, I got through the whole house. Expired anything/out. Buy a new collander/throw the ratty old one out. Chipped almost anything/toss. Buy a new lamp/donate the old one. Useless to you decor/donate. You get the idea.

  Considering they make whole shows about this now, I feel I'm at the forefront of ...something. I wonder what my demographic is? I think it must be you. Thank you for your support

  • 5:26 pm
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