Our finally (FINALLY) clearing out my mother’s storage lockers has proven to be a bit contagious and has inspired us to also start clearing away some un-dealt-with boxes and bins in our own house. And there’s plenty.
We did a massive scouring of our belongings, but mostly old paperwork and the like, when we had to clear out the house for our reno a few years ago. And we were told by people who had gone through similar experiences that we would also do some purging when we moved everything back in. Which, indeed, was the case. As we unloaded our storage container contents, there were definitely more than a few items that I looked at and wondered why, exactly, we’d chosen to keep them. And this was from having opted to save and pack them just months earlier.
But there still remained (okay, remains) a lot of goods that we’ve yet to actually get through and square away for ourselves. One downside to having a larger house: There’s more space to just put things down and forget about them.
My wife has been a godsend in all of this, with my mother’s storage lockers certainly, and now here at home as well. She’s been clearing out the boxes in the office, and now we can actually get to the bookshelves to store even more things efficiently. Imagine that!
It also sounds like she has a plan for how to contend with/orient our growing collection of musical instruments. We (okay, I) recently, somewhat unexpectedly, added a used but solid bass guitar to our collection of a few acoustic guitars, an old electric, and a set of electronic drums. Add in the mic and its basic computer interface, and we literally have more than what we’d need to make a band. Which would be awesome. I played in a hodgepodge band with friends for years in public school and a bit into high school, and have missed it ever since. Putting a band back together in all the years since then has been wholly unrealistic in a variety of ways.
Hey, maybe I’ll be the next original Foo Fighters (read: Dave Grohl writing every song and playing every instrument to record a great album, which then turned into his cobbling together a new, hugely successful band). I wonder if I’ve got a full album of songs in me. With at least one Everlong?
Hmm. Okay, maybe not.
In any case, it feels good getting some long overdue clearing out of various spaces done. I always feel a psychological relief when walking into a space that’s been cleaned and cleared of the clutter that been taking up so much room. It just feels… better on more than only a physical level. It’s the getting there that’s the challenge for us. The time commitment to do that instead of myriad other things (including many we actually want to do), plus the physical and mindful sorting and junking or saving of each individual thing. And then saving where? The old saying of “… and everything in its place” doesn’t hold when there isn’t yet a place for everything. And if there isn’t a place for it, do we really need it? That’s when I start getting up in my head about so much stuff, which just adds to the mental fatigue and daunting nature of it all. So it’s great to have someone in my life who’s finally also steeling herself to make at least the first pass at a lot of this clearing and sorting.
Hoping this roll continues.
Onward!