Lately my writing has taken a back seat to cleaning. Let’s face it, a potential buyer doesn’t want to open a closet and be hit in the head with a box of wrapping paper. Although I consider myself to be a tidy, organized person, over time closets become cluttered. Drawers will barely close. The whole purging process is cathartic to me. I’ve found items I thought were lost forever. Mainly I’ve discovered there are things I don’t need more of EVER. Things I didn’t realize was hoarding. Such as…
Napkins.
Paper or cloth. All occasion. I can fully outfit a baby shower with boy or girl napkins. Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year’s Eve. Book club. Football party. And Christmas? Oh my! I love to buy Christmas napkins at after Christmas sales. Three or four or five packages, at only $1.50 who can resist? I stick them in a drawer, and the next Christmas when our small family gathers, we use maybe six napkins. Maybe. You see the problem.
Here’s a sampling.
Apparently, I also hoard cheap sunglasses. I found a drawer full.
And gloves. Leather. Cashmere. Polka dot. Ski. Fingerless. Mittens. Razorback. Hand-knitted. Every color in the crayon box. (Gardening gloves don’t count. You can’t have too many.)
Now, back to cleaning. Our house officially goes on MLS tomorrow!
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
“Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.”
― Wendell Berry
Musical Pairing:
ZZ Top – Cheap Sunglasses
I took 15 car loads of cr#p to the rubbish center before moving back. It was LIBERATING! My goal? Not to unpack anything I didn’t adore. I’m sure when I ultimately unpack…when the shipment gets here in September, there still will be things that go directly to the States’ rubbish, but I feel happy…oh so happy that I got rid of like 90 percent of the clutter. The kids have recently asked for souvenirs on our sight-seeing summer. I’m like, “Uhm. No! That is just something I will have to pick up off the floor or someday relegate to the trash.” It is freeing, I tell you!
I totally agree Natasha! I’ve become friends with the man at Goodwill.
Instead of a hoarder, I have decreed my home a branch of the Historical Society. Are you sure those paper napkin pictures were not made at my house? Lately sent a huge truck load of really historical items (!) to an auction company. Boxed for 6 years and I had not missed them nor needed them. Gut-wrenching to let them go, but like the song on from Frozen: Let It Go. All of it. Even the paper napkins. Bless you, Talya!
I think I’ll ditch the baby napkins. I don’t see hosting a baby shower in my future – LOL.
Oh my goodness. First of all, I love this post. Second, you should do a link up and have everyone post the items they don’t need more of/they hoard, because this is hilarious. I need to remember this! lol!
Great idea Megan! Thanks for commenting.
After sorting through my Mom’s ‘stuff’ at her apartment I feel the need to start purging. It has been nine years since we moved and somehow we have accumulated too much AGAIN. Your blog has further convinced me to get busy. Good luck to you!
It’s a vicious cycle:) We’ll do better at the new house. Yeah right.
I think I’ll just wait til I die and let my kids do it. Unless I have to move first!
I think a lot of people have that plan Fay!
I love the Wendell Berry quote. I remember my grandmother telling my mother, “When I go, just set a match to it all. It will be easier.” I feel your pain! I tend to be a maybe-I-can-make-something-out-of-that type of gal. As I am currently helping my mother clean out her craft room (oh, my!), I am finding it a little easier to let some things go! Good luck with the packing.
So pleased to see that you didn’t miss the obvious musical pairing for this post. I started hearing ZZ Top in my head before I even got to the link at the bottom.
It was obvious, right? haha
Oh my goodness I know exactly what you are feeling! I too can cover every imaginable color themed party need for napkins, small plates, 12 0z paper cups, and plastic silverware! I always over-buy, then under-need and the leftovers get put far away in the pantry. I could host a rainbow party for 50 people with what I have in there.
Good luck selling your house!
I’m glad I’m not alone!!!
Last year when Maria and I helped her in-laws pack and downsize. She said, “Mom, start purging!” I do it in spurts. I also buy cute napkins on sale, but I think you have me beat!
I tell my mother that too!