Well my friends, it’s January! With the beginning of each year most of us want to access things, improve ourselves in someway. That’s where all the resolutions come from right? Organizing I have found is either something one does oneself or something that you hire for others to do for you. It’s one of those tasks that everybody should be great at theoretically but reality is only a very few of us even like doing it. lol I am not one of them.
Many years ago I ran across a book that explained how to continuously remain organized by always classifying your stuff. “Put Away”, “Give Away” and “Throw Away” were the three categories to live by and to a certain extent I have tried my hand at that throughout my adult years. It isn’t easy though and as time has gone by I have found it very difficult to give away any legos or American Girl dolls or… and the list goes on. Here’s why… there’s a closet under the stairs at my mother in laws home that has toys in out from when my husband was a child. Grand children and now great grand children are still playing with those same toys! I figure boxing them up and having them for later was and still is my best use of that investment. Granted it does take up a ton of space in the attic and I don’t remember where anything in particular is but I know one thing…. I have all of their childhood hidden up there because I never threw it or gave it away!
My friends laugh at this nonsense of keeping things and some might even, although not while I’m around, whisper I could be considered a closet hoarder, but I maintain that it’s just silly to have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on beautiful toys and clothes for the children to just toss them away when outgrown. I also know what it feels like to not go back to a home from childhood and to have my toys given away without my permission. I remember going back home and asking where my Barbies were along with all the clothes that my grandmother had sewed for them; for me to discover that my step person had given them away. Oh how I wish I had them when my daughter was little and I will still be wishing for them when my grand babies come along. Call me sentimental… thankfully my son feels the same way. He started early making sure all the StarWars and tractors were boxed up for safe keeping. It’s funny hearing a 7 year old stake a claim to his toys for the future with his children. An old soul for sure like me he must be! After all, one can never have too many legos!
I don’t know what happened exactly except to say that when we had Harvey my house got turned upside down and with new walls and furniture also came this desire to, for the first time in my life too I might add, go up in that attic of mine and bring everything down. Go through each box and each container and decide if this or that really suits me anymore and if I really do need every toy I have ever bought for my children. Maybe it’s a sign of menopause, perhaps shifting the room that once was my daughter’s princess realm to a music room for my son and husband sparked it? I do not know. In either case that’s the big plan for 2018. Now that the house has been completely restored to better than already perfect glory and the holidays are behind me; I am set about thoroughly disassembling my attic and making the decisions as to what I should “Give Away”, “Throw away” or “Keep!” There might be a garage sale in my not so distant future too, but I doubt it!
~Alisa
