I have all the feels for this ! Before Covid Emily was doing Tidy Tuesdays helping me organize and get rid of things. I did pretty good but would inevitably put just a couple items back. She took a picture of a self portrait she had done in 6th grade and then put the sketchbook in the recycling pile and sent the pic to me in text. The sketchbook is back in the closet. It's so difficult to decide what our priorities are in getting rid of our clutter and it's different for everyone.
Thanks, Mary! I love the idea of "Tidy Tuesdays." It was nice of Emily to take the picture, but I think you are A-OK to put the sketchbook back in the closet, too. The tactile nature of things is important. And also the immediacy of the hand-drawn or handwritten-ness of things matters a lot. I tell myself that even if I don't get rid of as much as might be ideal (MIGHT be, mind you!), it is fine. Progress is progress, and getting rid of things will be a lot easier for someone else other than ourselves someday. It's sad in a way, but not totally sad, that much of the. meaning items are imbued with is embedded in us. To others, much of this really will just be 'stuff.' While to us, it's more than that.
Hello Ellen! Well this is inspiring. I too am purging. Mostly because after a few deaths in our family, I do not want to burden anyone with my stuff. I have a fantasy of a ruthless purge but my reality is closer to yours. Too many creative ideas around saving things, being a writer - the rough drafts are overwhelming and the sentimental factor of not wanting to let go of memories in the form of things. Plus, I have a few collections!
Mary Ellen! Hello! I know what you mean about deaths in the family making you realize it would be nice to get a head start on some of this for someone down the line. I have a few collections also. ;)
There’s a beautiful passage in Ruth Ozeki’s, The Book of Form and Emptiness about that fantasy of what the things could become...a rag rug, a quilt...something. I think you’re right that a lot of it is tied up in fantasies of identity...who we are and who we wish we were. The whole novel is a gorgeous meditation on stuff.
Sometimes I think I’d like a bigger house and then I remember the constraints it forces--there’s just not enough room for stuff--and I’m grateful.
I have been meaning to read Ruth Ozeki for a long while now. Your note must be the reminder I need to get to it. "Fantasies of identity." Yes, I think so also.
I loved this and recognized myself in the things you described, including letting go of the proof of college. Grandparents and elderly aunts and uncles have passed and I have many of their old photos, decorative items, handmade Doilies and kitchen utensils. I think of them each time I use a measuring cup or a metal wisk, many items down from their parents. A multi colored granny square blanket and a giant Ball canning jar of crochet snakes (I assume that her mother was planning to make a rug from), that now sits in my tiny bedroom. There is a town wide yard sale in spring and I will be setting up a table on my lawn...
I think it's fantastic you are using items like the measuring cup and metal whisk. Me too! I have a metal colander I think belonged to my great-grandmother, though I'm not certain that's true. I like thinking it is as I drain steamed vegetables with it. How will you choose what to put on your yard sale table?
I have all the feels for this ! Before Covid Emily was doing Tidy Tuesdays helping me organize and get rid of things. I did pretty good but would inevitably put just a couple items back. She took a picture of a self portrait she had done in 6th grade and then put the sketchbook in the recycling pile and sent the pic to me in text. The sketchbook is back in the closet. It's so difficult to decide what our priorities are in getting rid of our clutter and it's different for everyone.
Thanks, Mary! I love the idea of "Tidy Tuesdays." It was nice of Emily to take the picture, but I think you are A-OK to put the sketchbook back in the closet, too. The tactile nature of things is important. And also the immediacy of the hand-drawn or handwritten-ness of things matters a lot. I tell myself that even if I don't get rid of as much as might be ideal (MIGHT be, mind you!), it is fine. Progress is progress, and getting rid of things will be a lot easier for someone else other than ourselves someday. It's sad in a way, but not totally sad, that much of the. meaning items are imbued with is embedded in us. To others, much of this really will just be 'stuff.' While to us, it's more than that.
Hello Ellen! Well this is inspiring. I too am purging. Mostly because after a few deaths in our family, I do not want to burden anyone with my stuff. I have a fantasy of a ruthless purge but my reality is closer to yours. Too many creative ideas around saving things, being a writer - the rough drafts are overwhelming and the sentimental factor of not wanting to let go of memories in the form of things. Plus, I have a few collections!
Mary Ellen! Hello! I know what you mean about deaths in the family making you realize it would be nice to get a head start on some of this for someone down the line. I have a few collections also. ;)
You and Rick, my friend. And me, I guess but his items are inevitably larger.
There’s a beautiful passage in Ruth Ozeki’s, The Book of Form and Emptiness about that fantasy of what the things could become...a rag rug, a quilt...something. I think you’re right that a lot of it is tied up in fantasies of identity...who we are and who we wish we were. The whole novel is a gorgeous meditation on stuff.
Sometimes I think I’d like a bigger house and then I remember the constraints it forces--there’s just not enough room for stuff--and I’m grateful.
I have been meaning to read Ruth Ozeki for a long while now. Your note must be the reminder I need to get to it. "Fantasies of identity." Yes, I think so also.
I loved this piece. I’m glad you took mom’s purse back out of the Goodwill box!
Thank you, Mariann! I'm glad I took the purse out too! Thanks for liking the piece.
Oh..how you touched my heart strings. Anne says I'm a hoarder..but it is all useful at a later time.
I loved this and recognized myself in the things you described, including letting go of the proof of college. Grandparents and elderly aunts and uncles have passed and I have many of their old photos, decorative items, handmade Doilies and kitchen utensils. I think of them each time I use a measuring cup or a metal wisk, many items down from their parents. A multi colored granny square blanket and a giant Ball canning jar of crochet snakes (I assume that her mother was planning to make a rug from), that now sits in my tiny bedroom. There is a town wide yard sale in spring and I will be setting up a table on my lawn...
I think it's fantastic you are using items like the measuring cup and metal whisk. Me too! I have a metal colander I think belonged to my great-grandmother, though I'm not certain that's true. I like thinking it is as I drain steamed vegetables with it. How will you choose what to put on your yard sale table?
Wonderful. The part about thinking about being at college. Reading the old letters. Heartbreaking and I don’t know why.