Junk in the Trunk
Last month I went to New Mexico, which is where I pretty much grew up. My mom was in the hospital and spent a lot of time sleeping and I would take off for long walks. New Mexico has always been a spiritual place for me, somewhere that has a good aura. Huge blue skies and big mountains. I got some good karma. I came home feeling like I needed to unburden myself of crap. I always do spring cleaning, but this year was different. I attacked the house with a vengeance. Threw out three and a half drawers of a four drawer filing cabinet. Half of the things in the pantries. That was interesting because there was a bottle of celery salt that I told hubby he had probably bought in college (a couple of decades ago). He scoffed, but then got to looking, and the date on the bottle was 1975. (I am not a packrat, but I totally married one and my offspring inherited the gene. God help me.) I got hubby to help me with the garage and we ended up with the van packed to the gills. One third to recycle, one third to donate and the rest to the dump.We are having company come for the upcoming graduation of the baby daughter, so the cleaning of the house has been a priority. For me. As I said, the rest of the house dwellers are not really into how shiny things are, or how many piles of clothing, paperwork, magazines there are sitting on the tables, desks, counters, floors . . . you get the picture. I could probably qualify for Clean Sweep.
Last year my daughter moved home from a year in Minnesota and was in dire need of sun and fun. She decided we needed a backyard pool and hubby indulged her. Bad idea. She spent almost no time there after days of her and her friends setting up the whole thing. Near the end of the season, the pool was neglected until it turned into a study in fungi. We tried dissembling it and it turned out daughter had terrible allergies to the molds it had grown, and it was right outside her bedroom window. It was heavy and then, after a year and a half of drought, we got rain, which translates to more mold and more weight. So the whole thing was impossible to move. Last week we cut it into pieces and hauled it into the back of the pickup and to the dump. But that was after it lay, deflated, the entire winter. Every time I caught sight of it, I thought "You might be a redneck if . . . " Anyway, that is my foray into spring cleaning 2007. I took a break for company and the upcoming rite of passage, but then I am right back into it. The attic is trembling in fear.
posted by Mom Thumb at 11:30 AM
11 Comments:
My garage has taken on a life of its own. In a few weeks I'm going to order one of those "special pickups" where you can put all your crap on your front lawn and the city comes by and takes it all way. Kind of like a giant Calgon truck.
I'm quite sure you'll read about it on my blog. Duh.
jeff - Take back the garage, you don't even know! I think I could start a clean sweep kind of business and call it the Calgon truck, but I might get sued.
Of course I'll read about it on the blog. I'm addicted. I have a house full of issues right now and I posted. Duh.
must be in the air. I attacked the mountains of rubbermaid totes in the shed this week with a vengeance and hauled a huge load to the local " new to you" shop.
The back room also known as the black hole is next...."I" tremble in fear at the thought of the attic....
:0)
dorothy - I remember the back room. Have no fear and attack with vigor. You will be glad you did. Bwahahahahaha!
Good for you! I wish I could do the same but every time I get started the kids need something and so I put it off ...again.
You make me want to do the same thing--dig in and throw out!!! Would you believe--I've got clothes of my mother's, who died in l989, hanging in a closet? (I was going to use some of them someday, and, of course, never have!!) And Bill's always yipping at me to throw out some of the dozen's of pairs of old shoes, on racks and shelves in the basement. I'm thinking if you can do it--so can I!!!
heather - Good for you! Kids always take precedence over the stuff. You can toss it later.
lois - When we moved here three years ago, I tossed stuff from our shed, like Mr. Potato Heads and Lincoln logs. At that time one kid was gone and another was in ninth grade. And tonight my baby graduated and I've got a whole new set of stuff to keep forever!
Linda, the celery salt reminded me of a box of Comet rice we found in Tom's mom's house. It had to be 30 years old, but instead of throwing it out, Tom brought it home. It makes me crazy! I guess when we die and our kids go through our stuff, they can wonder why we have a 60 year old box of rice. LOL. Of course, this is the man who kept a Commodore 64 computer and various pieces (that he just kept buying at yard sales) for years.
Tracy
tracy - You can probably sell that box of rice on E-bay. We have an Apple II GS in the attic that we bought about twenty years ago. I'm telling you, that attic is in trouble!
My brother in law could not get any charity in White Bear, Mn to send a truck for good stuff. He ordered a dumpster and help, to throw away thousands of dollars worth of his household valuables. He then sat down on the curb and cried because each thing in the dumpster held a memory.
That's so sad. At least if he could have donated, someone else would have been able to enjoy and make new memories.
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