Sorting through years of crap is a dispiriting operation. A few weeks ago we cleaned out the home of my elderly aunt. It was sad to reduce her life to a few boxes of items that we had to dispose of. What was sadder was that she had had some really nice art objects that had all been damaged in recent years by her caregivers.
In the end, we're so consumed by consuming that we wind up with houses full of clutter. Trying to sort stuff out now so that I can fit another person in the house is difficult. I am trying to be ruthless and keep reminding myself that if an object has been hiding in a box for ten years and I've forgotten about it, I really don't need it. Parting with some things is more emotional. A dozen teacups from 1948 - just a teacups, but I so clearly see them set out for a mid-century, post-war tea party, where women wore dresses, gloves and hats - small children wore white leather shoes, short pants and had their hair slicked down with water or up into little kewpie doll curls. A lost time. Throwing the cups into the dump seems to put a permanent cap on the era.
However, after going through other peoples' stuff to clean house, I have determined that I really have to pare down the crap around here. Lifestyles are different now. I'm prepared to part with things that ten years ago I would have fought to keep. Books especially.
We went into the Bay after working on the house; more crap there. If we quit buying, would the world's economy tank? Let's try it and find out.
3 comments:
i think she is grooming me so i won't suffer from crippling culture shock when i move to p.r. so far so good. how's life?
Getting rid of memories is one of the hardest things. I find books especially difficult to get rid of, there's just something about them that makes me want to keep them. Maybe we should get someone else to help when we clean up to force us to get rid of the useless detritous of our lives.
I volunteer to help. I LOVE throwing things away. Particularly when they are not mine. You're the one who reminded me that I was an evolutionary cul-de-sac, so pitch it out! No one cares about my photos or my stuff, so out it goes. Besides, who will want to remember this particular period in history? Who will be around to do so?
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