Decluttering

I spent yesterday going through some boxes my mom brought to me about 4 years ago.  I've had them in my attic and then the basement and then moved them here.  Ugh!  As I went through them I think my mother saved everything I ever did in school.  I'm not sure why she saved so much of it.  Other than the fact that I come by being a pack rat honestly.  She is too.  But I was brutal about throwing stuff out.  I basically kept one folder of report cards and my baby book.  Otherwise it all got tossed.  School projects, drawings, award certificates, drawings, reports, drawings, and more drawings.  I drew a lot.  I think I had two big paper boxes full of mostly drawings.  Some were good and some were awful.  Time to get rid of them though.  I havent' looked at them since I drew most of them.  No sense in packing them around or storing them for another 20 years for Bear and Mia to throw out.

It has made me decide to only keep one or two things from each year that the kids draw/write/create.  They (and I) don't need to store 13 years worth of school drawings someplace.  I'm learning we can save some of the family stuff without cluttering the house.  I'm still trying to deal with several plastic containers worth of stuff from my dad's side of the family.  There is some really great stuff in there and some stuff that is worth a lot so I don't want to just get rid of it but I don't really have space or the desire for a lot of it.  I appreciate the family history and I want my kids to know that but I need to find a way to pass that on without cramming our lives full of stuff.  I may have to actually build some sort of a scrapbook for the little slips of paper that my grandmother wrote tid-bits on.

Things like a note about my great-grandmother's crochet work.  My grandma said that her mom always called her crochet her "cigarette" and did lots of the handwork.  Then in later years she took up smoking and quit doing so much handwork.  If I understood the note correctly and my memory of the stories my dad told were correct, my great-grandmother didn't start smoking until after she was 60.

Things like that I want my kids to know the story of.  Also, I've been deemed the keeper of this stuff for my brother as well.  He is a bit transient since he works for ranches and doesn't really have anywhere to keep this stuff.  I really do wish he would come get some of it.  I'm liable to get rid of it and if he wanted it he's liable to be ticked at me. 

These last couple of years our relationship is so-so.  Not that he'd want me saying that online.  He hates "his business" being out there.  I understand to an extent but he takes it a bit over the top.  Let's just say it is a good thing he lives a couple of states away and we only see each other once or twice a year.

The point there is that he needs to come get some of this stuff if he wants it. 

It has felt good to be going through the stuff and getting rid of things.  I have several more boxes to go.  I really do think my mom saved everything.  And I'm terrible about getting rid of stuff.  I always think that I may need that someday.  It never seems to fail either that once I finally get rid of it I find a need for it.  Figures. 

This move has shown me just how bad of a pack rat I am though.  Well, maybe some of it is just how bad my mom has been about it.  We kept moving boxes and Tom would ask me who's box it was.  It seemed like the answer was always mine.  Yikes!  So, while the kids play in the back yard I'm inside sorting stuff.  That is, until I can't stand it anymore and I go play outside too.