Brenda (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
burendasan4) wrote2021-04-24 03:01 pm
burendasan4) wrote2021-04-24 03:01 pm
Entry tags:
Going to Maryland to declutter
This past week has been stressful (not all bad, just stressful) and now that things are winding down, I'm exhausted. The big thing was that my sisters and I went to Maryland to visit my mom for the first time in over a year. It was the first time traveling out of state since late February 2020. I won't get into the details of the visit, but I wanted to write about the main reason we were there, which was to help my mom clean out stuff belonging to us in preparation for her to eventually move to a smaller place.
And strangely enough, we managed to stay on task. But going through stuff and sorting it out for two and a half days straight was tiring. For me, there were a lot of papers and notebooks from my school years dating from middle school to college. There were papers from my month-long stay in Quebec the summer before my senior year in high school. There were two boxes of photographs and their negatives. My mom set aside a box for me to go through that was full of installation discs for computers, printers, and other peripherals as well as a nest of various ethernet, coaxial, and telephone line cables. For my sisters, there were piles of clothes. We also went through stuff my dad didn't take with him when he moved to Texas. Among those things were two ironwood carved figures that he got in Mexico. I remember when he got one of them, sometime around 1992. We were visiting relatives and I have a memory of him being persuaded to buy the carving. They were really playing it up, saying that ironwood was very valuable and that this would be a great item to have. Now, nearly 30 years later, it sits in a garage and no one could be persuaded to take it home with them. We went through so much stuff this weekend that, at the time, we felt we *had* to acquire and keep...for what?? For it to gather dust and later burden us with the task of getting rid of it. I need to hold on to and remember this feeling whenever I am tempted to buy something. What will I ultimately do with it? I, or someone else, will eventually have to figure out how to dispose of it.
Of course, I am not saying that we should never buy anything...but we just have to think about whether it's worth having to go through the effort of having to get rid of it. Also, even when we do acquire something we're happy with...we have to recognize when it's time to let it go instead of letting it gather dust...this is easier said than done! For example: one of the things I came across while digging through my stuff back in Maryland was a handmade calendar for the month of July (1997). Above the calendar was a crudely made collage made with things I managed to find around the house as well as some dried flowers. Like I said, it was far from fine art...but I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment at having created it. The calendar was also a record of an exciting time in my life when I was getting ready to head out on my own for the first time ever (even if it was just for a month). I don't regret for a minute having made it. But I knew it was time to let it go, so I took a picture of it and threw it in the big trash bag we set up to throw away things we no longer needed.
Anyway, my hope is that I can remember the lessons learned last weekend while going through my stuff in Maryland. I hope to be more mindful of the things I bring into my house (and my life) and that I know when to let go of things instead of letting them take up valuable space and gather dust.
And strangely enough, we managed to stay on task. But going through stuff and sorting it out for two and a half days straight was tiring. For me, there were a lot of papers and notebooks from my school years dating from middle school to college. There were papers from my month-long stay in Quebec the summer before my senior year in high school. There were two boxes of photographs and their negatives. My mom set aside a box for me to go through that was full of installation discs for computers, printers, and other peripherals as well as a nest of various ethernet, coaxial, and telephone line cables. For my sisters, there were piles of clothes. We also went through stuff my dad didn't take with him when he moved to Texas. Among those things were two ironwood carved figures that he got in Mexico. I remember when he got one of them, sometime around 1992. We were visiting relatives and I have a memory of him being persuaded to buy the carving. They were really playing it up, saying that ironwood was very valuable and that this would be a great item to have. Now, nearly 30 years later, it sits in a garage and no one could be persuaded to take it home with them. We went through so much stuff this weekend that, at the time, we felt we *had* to acquire and keep...for what?? For it to gather dust and later burden us with the task of getting rid of it. I need to hold on to and remember this feeling whenever I am tempted to buy something. What will I ultimately do with it? I, or someone else, will eventually have to figure out how to dispose of it.
Of course, I am not saying that we should never buy anything...but we just have to think about whether it's worth having to go through the effort of having to get rid of it. Also, even when we do acquire something we're happy with...we have to recognize when it's time to let it go instead of letting it gather dust...this is easier said than done! For example: one of the things I came across while digging through my stuff back in Maryland was a handmade calendar for the month of July (1997). Above the calendar was a crudely made collage made with things I managed to find around the house as well as some dried flowers. Like I said, it was far from fine art...but I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment at having created it. The calendar was also a record of an exciting time in my life when I was getting ready to head out on my own for the first time ever (even if it was just for a month). I don't regret for a minute having made it. But I knew it was time to let it go, so I took a picture of it and threw it in the big trash bag we set up to throw away things we no longer needed.
Anyway, my hope is that I can remember the lessons learned last weekend while going through my stuff in Maryland. I hope to be more mindful of the things I bring into my house (and my life) and that I know when to let go of things instead of letting them take up valuable space and gather dust.