In preparation for next weekend’s home tour, I have been scurrying about, trying to get rid of some of the “stuff” that has accumulated over the past few years. Much of my “stuff” is paper. Much of Max’s “stuff” is “stuff,” because Max is one of those people with the mindset of “We can’t throw that out! We might need it someday!”
And so we have a bicycle hanging in the basement that may have been ridden once in the past 33 years. We have innumerable tools and gadgets and fishing line (used to hang ornaments from the ceiling – not for fishing), law school texts, notebooks, and things I can’t identify. We don’t even know anymore what is stored in the little shed out back, and frankly, I don’t want to find out. I would have to decide what to do with it and hear, “Wait! We can’t get rid of that! We might need it someday!”
Along that same line, I had decided two years ago to sell or donate all the books that we have but will probably not read again. I took books from all nine bookcases in the house and piled them on the floor, planning to carry them out in a laundry basket. Unbeknownst to me, Max followed me around and put most of them back. “I haven’t read these,” he whined. Two years later, he still hasn’t read them. They’re going out. That’s it.
I scoured the guest room closet and saw more than four suitcases or totes. To have so many suitcases is ridiculous, and so I picked out four to get rid of. Max hasn’t seen those yet. I hope to get them down to the basement without his noticing, because I know what he will say. “I took that to Wyoming a couple of years ago! It was a great suitcase!”
In all fairness, however, I cannot escape the same scrutiny unscathed. I have several stacks, and they are big stacks, of recipes that I have torn out of cooking magazines over the years, claiming, “I’m going to make this someday!” As I went through the recipes the other day, determined to get rid of some that no longer appealed to me, I found some from the now-defunct “Gourmet” magazine, remembering that I hadn’t whipped them up because each required some sort of exotic ingredient that I couldn’t get in Sedalia in the early 1990s – such as a can of black beans.
What’s worse, I still have a stack of the magazines that I haven’t read at all! I guess I could recycle them without looking, but I have a feeling that I’ll be hiding them in some closet for the tour and then looking at them later – to find more recipes that I will never make.
Also, during my Lenten closet purge, I found clothing that I hadn’t seen for years, clothing that I knew Emily would yell at me for wearing. It’s helpful – but embarrassing – to have a semi-resident fashion consultant. I was diligent in donating the wearable clothing to SFCC’s Hire Attire program, but later found purses and jewelry that I don’t wear, so they are now on the floor of my closet to be dealt with tomorrow.
And I hate to even mention the kitchen. We have oodles of storage space, but I have been easily able to stuff it to the gills with table linens, dishes, glasses, and serving pieces. I now am the proud owner of my mother’s silverware, Bubba’s crystal, my little pimiento cheese sandwich plates from Grandma, my great-grandmother’s carnival glass serving pieces – pink AND yellow – and numerous items belonging to my other “greats” that hold a place in my heart just because they are from my family from a century past. I’m trying desperately to get rid of what I don’t use, but the truth is that I use it all – just not all at once.
Well, I suppose that the best thing about this homes tour is that I’ve committed to having the garage sale of the century the week after it’s over. I wonder what will make it out the door? Come find out!
