Today I finally finished sorting through the rest of the contents of my house and made decisions on what to throw away, toss in the charity pile or re box to keep and bring over to my new home. The Murph didn't really appreciate that the things to keep pile was larger than the charity or the trash pile. He didn't understand how a Winnie the Poo cassette holder could be of use to me now that my only child is in college. Actually it was a cassette holder full of baby music cassettes, including various Raffi songs including Banana phone and my fave, Baby Beluga, Disney babies songs, Wee Sing America, you get the idea... I did have it in the to keep pile until I realized that I no longer have a cassette player to play those kind of cassettes on even if, for whatever reason, I might one day want to. I already gave all my Barney and Disney VHS movies to charity. That was a tough decision.
One thing I have a really tough time letting go of are my books. Not just my books, but all the children books I bought for Steven. And it gets worse.... I still have most all the books I had as a child. I hoped the Murph wouldn't notice my collection of Nancy Drew books and Little House on the Prairie, but he did. As he was unloading box after box when we got home yesterday evening, one of the box lids slipped off and he noticed that all the books were yellow.
The Murph: "What's this?"
Me (thinking oh no!): "Oh, that's just some books."
The Murph: "I know but what kind. They look the same..."
Me (hoping he would just be quiet and put the lid back on): " No, nothing. Just some books I had as a kid...."
The Murph (scrunching up his face, studying one of the books): "Looks like a series or something...."
Me (embarrassed): "Yes! okaaay! It's my Nancy Drew collection! "
I didn't have to see his face to know what his expression was. I've seen it way too many times this past year as I have slowly cleaned out my house getting it ready to sale. My brother's been over the past couple of days taking yard stuff that I don't need anymore since the Murph already has all that kind of stuff. It's really bad when the Murph and my brother stand there looking at me surrounded by all my junk and just shake their heads. I think my brother even mentioned the "hoarder' word a time or two. What do they know! Twenty years in one house and a person can accumulate a lot of stuff, especially if that person has kids or just one kid and an ex (or two) that left a bunch of their stuff when they got booted out.
I think my stuff is still valuable. Like the Lance Armstrong Nike running shoes I bought for the Boy a few years ago. I asked my brother if he wanted them or maybe his son, my nephew might want them.
My brother (taking a look at the shoes): "Man, those things are out of style!"
Me: "Not really. They still make them I think. I got them for the Boy, but he never even wore them."
My brother (wrinkling his nose at the shoes) "I don't blame him. I wouldn't wear those either."
The shoes went into the charity pile. I'm sure someone will appreciate hardly ever worn Lance Armstrong Nike running shoes!
The last time my brother was over at the Murph's he recognized my rocking chair that I have kept for about 30 years. He couldn't believe it was the same rocking chair. He said, " no way is that the same chair you use to sit in when we were still living at home. " Yep, it is! Shocker!
I took pictures of furniture, tv's, rugs, planters, lamps, a treadmill and an assortment of other kind of larger items that I'm not keeping and emailed them out to close friends and family members to see if anybody wants any of it. If not, then it will go to charity. I thought I was doing pretty good to do that, but when I asked the Murph on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, how did I do in getting rid of my old stuff. He gave me a 0!
What the Murph doesn't know is I kept all my barbie stuff and my International Doll collection and they are now somewhere downstairs in one of the many boxes stacked up along the wall next to my Nancy Drew books. Well, maybe he has an idea since he gave me 0 in cleaning out stuff. The Murph says he's in charge of cleaning out stuff in his house when we make our next move hopefully this summer. He says things are gonna fly out of here, especially all the crap I brought over that we're going to have to make a decision on again. We'll see....
Some things you just have to keep....
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