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Post by jufergu on Dec 28, 2012 13:30:46 GMT
I just took most of my Christmas decorations to the Goodwill Thrift Store. I had to let go of some things that I had kept for decades while the children and grandchildren were around. But now, we rarely have anyone who travels to see us for the holidays and it is a big problem to store it. I kept just a few of my dearest things and cried on the parking lot, as I watched them take it away. One of the problems that happens in advanced age. You have to start letting go. If you still have people around for holidays, it is a happier time.
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Post by Shepherdess on Dec 28, 2012 15:47:23 GMT
I am sorry to here you had to let things go but the memories you kept will mean more. I find I have the same problem with letting things go. We have so much stuff and no where to keep it. I look at the people who decoate the whole house inside and out for every holiday and wonder where they keep it all.
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Post by jufergu on Dec 28, 2012 17:10:18 GMT
We have no basement and the garage is full of the essentials, as are the closets. The only storage I have is in an attic over the garage. To get up there, you have to pull a ladder down and climb up with the boxes. You can imagine how difficult this is for my 73 year old husband with terrible arthritis. So, I have vowed to get rid of everything that would have to be stored up there. He will still haul things up because he is stubborn, but this will make a small dent in the problem. Yes, the memories will have to make due. In the next 10 years, I plan to give away any artwork that has not been sold. Maybe even sooner if we have any health crisis here.
I could tell you the horror stories of what happened when our parents passed away, but I bet you already know about that.
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Tess
Full Member
Posts: 161
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Post by Tess on Dec 28, 2012 18:22:52 GMT
I always say that about these homes that are decorated so beautifully at Xmas time, where on earth do they store it all? Last year I bought these wax battery candles in the sales and used those to decorate my fireplace this year they looked really nice. Christmas was held here and I got to play house and use my willow pattern crockery that I'd had for several years. Was having a tidy up in the kitchen day before and washed a mark on the wall and was horrified to see the wall come up a shade or two lighter, well there we were washing down the walls Christmas Eve. It was a very hot humid day with the remnants of tropical cyclone Evan so we cranked up the air con from up in my studio and it cooled that part of the hosue down, we had a torrential downpour about 3 so I was able to rush outside and put the goats away, all in all it was easier for me to not travel anywhere and Sophie was here as well so that was just perfect, well not quite I forgot to put the ham out on the buffet table, duh, I didn't even notice as I'm vegetarian, my daughter in laws mum arrived with all sortsso there was plenty of choice.
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Post by Shepherdess on Dec 29, 2012 0:00:37 GMT
Judy your husband sounds like another friends husband he is 84 and keeps trimming their 15 foot hedge.
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Post by zed on Dec 30, 2012 11:29:25 GMT
I am dreading having to clear out my Dad's house after he's gone, though the garden and his sheds will be 5 times worse. I recently had a big clear out, Judy. Stuff that I have obsessively collected and hoarded over the years pretty much all had to go. I started last year with my books and dvds and gave most of them away, at least 300 dvds and probably 6 or 700 books. Then started on the loft, bringing boxes down and sorting through, being harsh (will I ever use it again, did I even remember I had it etc) Practically everything went to charity, and I still keep trying to get rid of more
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Post by Shepherdess on Dec 30, 2012 12:50:30 GMT
One of my projects over the next few days is to go through all my cook books. I only use about 3 but there are 50 or 60 of them. Books are hard. I was brought up to cherish books, to take care of them and respect them. They say people are going to ebooks but used book sales make are big around here. I can drop a 10 book in the bath and be mad but a 200 ereader would be another thing entirely. I like to share books too, you can't do that on an ereader. you don't really own it.
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Post by lyn on Dec 30, 2012 23:49:54 GMT
I wish I could remember who said this, but the words have stuck in my head:
If you are overwhelmed, simplify your life. Go through everything. Then when you are done, Simplify it again.
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Post by Shepherdess on Dec 31, 2012 2:22:16 GMT
That is good advise Lyn, I try to do it with my personal things. A farm can accumulate so much stuff. All good stuff and you need a wide and strange assortment of things for running a farm. It never ceases to amaze me what junk is useful.
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Post by zed on Dec 31, 2012 11:18:27 GMT
That's great advice, Lyn I'm on a constant cull these days. I even gave away a few of my paintings last time. Ann, you could scan your favourite recipes, add your notes for how you alter them etc, even print them out if you wanted. Or go a bit further, take your own photo, rewrite the recipe with your own alterations, the print out and sell at the fairs
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Post by jufergu on Dec 31, 2012 15:03:01 GMT
I am still sorting, cullling and organizing and have found so much more storage room now. I am very proud of myself for having the guts to take charge. I am going to spend the rest of this year redoing my first clearing, until I am convinced that I have gotten everything in control. Of course, my kids will be horrified when they have to leave with all the stuff that I set aside for them to take home with them. Ha ha, that really makes me feel good.
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Post by jufergu on Dec 31, 2012 16:59:31 GMT
Another post from the "new and improved" Judy. I am getting out all of the Irish linens and lace table clothes that I have been hoarding away growing mildew. I am going to use them for everyday. If they get stains and have to be washed, so be it. I am almost 72 years old. What am I saving them for? ??
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Post by Shepherdess on Dec 31, 2012 21:26:54 GMT
Good for you Judy! And wear your best undies for everyday too.
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Post by sulasmom on Dec 31, 2012 23:46:15 GMT
Judy, I cringe when I think of what must have been in the boxes you sent to the goodwill! Purging is good but here is a little story about "mucking out."
For years my mother and I spent blissful days at auctions and garage sales digging through boxes of other peoples treasures. Buying, collecting and selling antiques is a passion that runs in my family. My mother, grandmother and great-grandfather were all in the business in some fashion. I still have the first item that I successfully purchased while doing my won bidding! I was 8 years old. Who is going to bid against an eight year old right? I thought I was pretty clever. It was a tiny fabric covered victorian sewing box containing a gold thimble, a china thimble, colored thread and needles. (Yes, Ruth I will show it to you someday.) If it could only talk! My own children spent many days with me cleaning out other peoples barns and grain bins looking for goodies. I keenly remember nursing my first born at a really great auction in Oregon. These memories are precious to me. Many years ago mom became ill. She sold her antique shop and started "mucking out"! She bought and sold for many years but would not sell anything that was "family." Much of our family memorabilia was stored in my parent's basement, garage and various closets. Mom was not a horder by todays TV standards but more a keeper of family treasures. She confided in me that the thought of her three children having to clean up after she was gone was more frightening than cancer! Over the next couple of years mom would send boxes to me from the bowels of our basement. She would call and let me know that a great box was heading my way and to call when I opened it so we could remember together. One box contained all of my dolls that I thought were long gone! Mom had saved them all. Betsy-Wetsy, Chatty Cathy and Shrinking Violet came to Montana. My sister's Terry Lee was in that box too but I sent it on to her. (I always wanted that doll). Old high school yearbooks and love letters came too. I wonder if M.M.W. knows that I still have his class ring?! Mom said that she had fun with her project and I certainly had fun opening those boxes! I did feel sad that I lived too far away to help do this big job as a family. We all then could have had the fun of remembering together. Mom lived a good life and after her death in 2001, Dad continued his own kind of cleanup work in the basement. He can't get down the stairs anymore so the door remains locked to protect toddling great-grandchildren. During a recent visit home my dad and I were talking about a time in the 60's when we prepared for the bomb threats by stocking our "bomb shelter" basement with food and water. Just in case. It was a scary time with air raid drills in school. Our talk of the junky basement led my sister and I down the stairs. My sister lives with Dad now and ventures downstairs ocassionally to get Christmas decorations etc. that are still stored there. Along one wall were several boxes. They had been marked PAULA, CATHY, DAVE. When I asked my sister what the boxes were she said that she didn't know but they had been there for years. Of course I wanted to open them! Cathy said that Dad was given strict instructions from Mom that they were not to be opened until both parents had passed! Dad swears that he doesn't know anything about them but at 87, he doesn't remember much! My brother remembers Mom feeling bad that there wouldn't be anything fun to go through if she cleaned up too much. We all decided to leave the boxes alone and Dad promised that he wouldn't live too much longer! I choose to believe that Mom has stashed some real treasures in each of our boxes. The kind of stuff that when found will make us sad and happy and help us to deal with the loss of two wonderful parents.
I know this is long but my point in the telling is this ... don't get rid of too much. What you think is junk might provoke a grand memory to the person who gets to clean after you are gone. It can be a healing journey to those that you leave behind even is they aren't family!
Me? I am leaving all of my junk in unmarked boxes. My kids will have lots of healing time going through box after box of tupperware before they get to the good stuff!
Happy New Year felting friends! Paula
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Tess
Full Member
Posts: 161
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Post by Tess on Jan 1, 2013 0:52:02 GMT
My mum had an obsessive compulsive disorder, she was always throwing stuff out, I remember in the early 70's in the UK when those collapsable umbrella's were all the rage I was looking for it one day and she said she'd thrown it out cause it was all broken. LOL
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