A few years ago Charlotte, Diggy, Pinky, Paenney, Fojo and I helped my mom and dad clean out my grandparents’ house. Gram and Grampa lived in that house for forty years or so. It was a nice house, on a lake, beautiful view, nestled in the woods. The thing I never realized about that house while I was growing up was its tremendous amount of storage space.
Storage space is something people look for in houses and one would be glad to get a lot of it. The problem is, you can store stuff…lots of stuff…and no one will ever know how much “stuff” you have. Not a problem you say? I beg to differ.
With every cupboard, every closet and every drawer we found things we couldn’t believe. Really, how many baskets does one need? Might as well keep them all if you’ve got the space for them. Hosiery, dozens of unopened packages of hosiery. In the garage my grandpa had a barrel…a barrel… filled with yardsticks, and another filled with brooms. There was multiples of everything, and most of it wasn’t worth keeping.
We all keep different things for different reasons. It isn’t hoarding, necessarily, but a lot of us have certain items that are harder to part with than others.
This weekend I began decorating my house for Christmas. For me it’s a matter of having to take down the everyday knickknacks and artwork to make room for the Christmas decorations. As I went through the house, cleaning and clearing I noticed something very disturbing. There, in the rumpus room, sat a pile of magazines. In the bedroom there was a magazine rack, full of magazines. In my sitting room not only was there another magazine rack filled with magazines but also a freestanding pile of them as well as a grocery bag full of them. And there, in the closet, another pile on the top shelf. Oh my God, I’m turning into my grandmother! How many magazines does one need?!
It’s time to start clearing things out. I’ll make a project of quickly paging through all of those magazines to see if there was something inside the covers I thought was worth keeping. After all, why would I keep them if I didn’t think there was something valuable they could offer?
Every year one of my New Year’s resolutions is to get more organized. This year will be no different. One way for me to do that is to make room, to get rid of the many piles and racks of magazines. The reasons for this are 1) I don’t want to turn into my grandmother, and 2) I don’t have the storage space Gram had. And guess what? I’m not going to wait until 2012 to get started on this.
What can you do to make your home less cluttered and more inviting? Because your home should be your sanctuary, not a storage space for things unused and forgotten. Plus, if you’re going to turn into your grandmother go the route of being the baker she was, not the neurotic stasher.
Auntie B's Wax 
Made me LAUGH OUT LOUD!!! Alot of things make me smile, but to get a huge laugh….must resonate at my home! I’m the thrower outer, my other half and his children (notice I call them HIS…..if they were acting like me then they’d be MY children) can’t throw ANYTHING away!
I wish I were a cut-and-dry thrower outer or saver. I’m conflicted. On one hand I think I should save more things out of sentiment and I don’t ~ like old papers written in school at any level. On the other hand I don’t want to become one of those people who saves things never to look at them again simply because I think I’m supposed to save them. I’ve never been able to cognitively reach the middle of the spectrum.
I also think, Mary, that most households contain thrower outers and savers alike. It makes for a good balance ~ and you can all keep each other in check. Thanks for your comment!