Monday, April 14, 2008

stuff

Yes, really, I'm going to talk about stuff.

I am not the tidiest of people....a trait you will find in other members of my family too... And I also accumulate things.

Ever since my waterbed went kablooey I've been in the process of sorting through the entire contents of my room and closet, just slowly picking away at it like an archeologist looking for dinosaur bones (haven't found any yet but I'm not done). I took the old bed out and rearranged furniture and put my twin bed from college (which had been wrapped in tarps and suspended from the garage rafters) in there. That's good, other than I still roll over and whack my head on the wall pretty often (because it's way narrower than I'm used to, and I didn't used to sleep in the corner against the wall). On the bright side it opens up some floor space which was previously unheard of because my room is about 10x10 feet. Really. I kid you not. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, when we moved here I don't think I did much sorting of "stuff," I just packed it up and brought it here and there are a lot of boxes in my closet that just have stuff I never unpacked. Stuff, just stuff. I mean, considering the timing and circumstances of the move I think that's pretty normal, but in my effort to simplify things lately I am trying to whittle back the accumulation of useless crap. And I keep finding things that make me think "why do I have this?" Like my oldest brother's "Shamu Crew" membership card from Sea World when he was six years old (um, the year I was born!). Ummm, seriously, why on earth would that be in one of the dresser drawers?? I'm going to mail it to him.

I did find a penny from 1939 though. Actually there's a whole coffee can full of spare change that's been building up for a few years. That'll be fun to dump into the Coin Star machine, after I pick out all the neat old ones of course.

A lot of the stuff has sentimental value for me though, I have a hard time parting with things that have a story behind them (so I don't). I can see why people get those nice glass fronted curio cabinets, to display the sentimental stuff. I guess for now I should just try to condense it into fewer boxes of things I can't seem to make myself live without.

I should photograph my collection of horse figurines, it's pretty impressive and ever-expanding. I will have to get at least one new one at Horse Expo. :-) I should find out in about a week and a half or so whether the painting I entered was accepted into the art show there. Cross your fingers!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you moved more often, like me, you would learn to shed the extras. -BM

Anonymous said...

My new rule of thumb is that "small" crap is OK because you can store a lot of it in one box that's easy to keep out of the way. You don't need a lot of big stuff to bring back memories. When you have too much big stuff that you're keeping for sentimental reasons, it just gums up your life and keeps you from moving ahead. Or moving anywhere - it gets to be too much trouble to move. JJ

Katherine Plumer said...

BM- moving sucks!

JJ- yeah, I agree, I'm trying to think of things in terms of "will I ever use it/wear it/display it" and if the answer is no or maybe not then off it goes! All my large possessions are practical (furniture, horses...) ;-)