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I'm fortunate enough to have this week off, so i decided not to waste my time. The project has been the clean-up of the laundry room shelves, which have been a repository of various and sundry things over the years, and many of those various and sundry things had to go, especially the ones that still belonged to my daughter who moved out almost three years ago. Now she can go through all the boxes of stuff i gave back to her and throw them out herself! But hey, there were some My Little Ponies (one would be worth $80 if it still had its wings), and little plastic Cabbage Patch doll figurines (many of those actually miraculously appeared in our cabbages one summer), her porcelain dolls, college texts from her three-month college career, etc.

Today i unearthed a cache of old "blankies", a Hudson Bay blanket that was way too warm to keep on our bed, and a "eulogy" i had written when our cat died eleven years ago (sniffle). I also found a booklet my son had made in French class when he was nine (THAT'S where some of those old pictures went!). "C'est mon père. Il est bûcheron." That either means that his dad is a logger or he has a beard! LOL

I guess this is kind of like the "Remember" thread, only it's personal stuff. And much of this stuff falls under the category of "WHY do i keep this junk???" Much of it didn't keep this time. Big garbage bag full. You just can't hang on to that much of the past after awhile. But i couldn't throw out the little black rubber boots that all my kids wore - the foot part is only about 4" long! There was also my favourite blouse from the '70s, and a small hooked rug that my grandfather had made.

Anyway, i did a good job. There's even room now for two more rubbermaid containers that are in another room. But first, i have to go through them. And i'm sure there are baby clothes in them. :)

Comments (14)

  • sierra_z2b
    18 years ago

    Ya ya ya.....I know I have to clean-up the laundry room area.......or the mini roses would be under lights already. Maybe this comming weekend......we'll see. haha

    Sierra

  • crazymaisy
    18 years ago

    Marcia, You sound like my MIL, she saves or saved everything and now everytime we visit her or she visits us she gives DH something that is sentimental. Now I have to deal with it all at my house ;)

    I need to get downstairs too one of these days and start cleaning/organizing too!

    Sharon
    aka Crazy_Gardener

  • tabardca
    18 years ago

    Marcia, you have a Hudson's Bay point blanket! I am so jealous!

  • luv2gro
    18 years ago

    Just don't wash it, Marcia. My aunt gave me a HB point blanket when I was about 20. No one told me I wasn't supposed to WASH it. : (

    We have got sooooooo much stuff after dissolving both of our parents houses. I thought I was a sentimental pack rat but DH is worse. We've got boxes that he brought home that are filled with scrap paper, and that is only one example. Multiply that by about 150 boxes from his parents alone. AAAARRRGGHH! Will someone please come and empty out my basement. I need to get to my greenhouse.

    Shauna.

  • marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Yep - we got it as a wedding gift. The guy who gave it to us lived in a log cabin, so something like that would have been fine on his bed, but it was way too hot on ours. He was insulted too. :( Even though he's dead now, he'd probably come back and haunt me if i got rid of it!

    LOL Shauna! I did know not to wash it - had it dry cleaned before i put it away!

    My parents are still alive and they have enough clutter now. They moved to their present apartment ten years ago and still have a double locker room in the basement full of junk. They've been ordered to cut it back drastically! My dad is the pack rat, plus he likes to buy things, so you can imagine what he's gotten holed up down there. They've tried to give us stuff, but i keep telling them we have enough junk of our own! Maybe my daughter and i will go up one weekend and help them be ruthless. I wonder if they allow garage sales INSIDE apartment buildings!

  • lilmonicker
    18 years ago

    Its not even spring yet and you are cleaning... lol
    I've been kind of cleaning too. Why do I keep all these drawings my kids make (some are nice but I've got some with just little scribbles). By the way I've been catching up on some of the threads as I've been away for a bit and no I'm sorry I don't know of any place in Tbay that sells milk in jugs. Anyways if you only plan to use them for wintersowing would you store them in your laundry room in the summer? ;-)

    - Andrew

  • garden_chicken
    18 years ago

    It hardly seems right getting this declutter bug right now, but maybe we're in for an early spring and KNOW that we gotta get this stuff done now!

    I just finished reading 'Cleaning and the Meaning of Life' - a cute read with some good ideas. Anyway, it furthered my motivation to de-clutter, that and the fact that if, one day, I'm abducted by aliens, some poor family member is going to be stuck looking over my years of 'stuff' collecting shaking their head in wonder. I think that is actually my biggest motivation for de-cluttering. I have watched my parents dissolve the households of elderly relatives and realized how much work is involved in getting rid of 'other peoples' junk-stuff-memories-whatever (let alone your own!).

    The ambition bug has really struck me since January 1, I have had a slow down at work and am making use of it! I have painted 2 rooms, put down new baseboard in both, done a partial reno in the main bath (look out tub! you're next!), and done a whole bunch of Freecycling.

    It really feels good! Like tossing open the windows on a spring day!

    -gc

  • CrazyDaisy_68
    18 years ago

    This is funny because I've been hit with the de-cluttering bug too. WHAT is going on??? LOL

    Hi. I'm Ang and I'm a pack-rat. De-cluttering is a foreign word to me.

    The other day I was trying to find something and realized how all my JUNK was getting in the way. It all those storage closets that you can "dump it and forget it" and that's exactly what I do! LOL

    So I have decided that my New Years Resolution is to DECLUTTER!! Closet by closet! It may take a while! If I go MIA you'll know where to start looking!

  • marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    So, Ang, you're saying you're GOING INTO the closet, not coming out? LOL

    The reason i started decluttering was because i had the time to do it. Usually i set myself a task for Christmas and March Break. Summer is a different story. I always say i'm going to do something inside when it's too hot outside, but mostly i end up reading or playing on the computer. I should be cleaning the basement then because it's a lot cooler!

    Andrew - heck of a good idea! I do have space on those shelves now, so it's a good time to start filling them with milk jugs! I think there's only one place in Dryden that sells milk in jugs. Not sure about Kenora, or why we can get them here, but i'm not complaining. If you can't get milk jugs, i'm sure there are a lot of people that buy water in the same kind of jugs. They'll work just as well!

  • valleyrimgirl
    18 years ago

    Hey...my daughter also has the Little Ponies. She is keeping them 'cause they are wonderful for little girls to play with. She was married last August and only has a few containers of her stuff left in my house now. You know, her lego (there was pink lego sets out when she was into lego), her barbie stuff and ponies.

    Now that she is gone...her old room is MINE!!! My crafts/sewing stuff is coming out from under the stairs, out from our bedroom, out from the boys' room, out from the laundry room and boy, do I have organizing to do. I think I have every craft and stuff for that craft since I was in 4-H 30 years ago. Plus, when my MIL passed away, my brothers-in-law went through her stuff and I now have all her old knitting and crochet patterns and suppplies and some other misc. to go through, cull and then put what I want to keep into the room also. I bought 20 of the clear stackable rubbermaid photo organizer containers and now have all the photos in them, my patterns in 5 of them, and one even has sea shells and sand collected from Cuba, Florida and the west coast of Canada. Memories from all those keepsakes...it's hard to know what to throw out and what to keep. It's a big job to organize and de-clutter!

    I also have to do the laundry/pantry room...anything that there is no room for in my kitchen cupboards has to be stored downstairs. I need to go through all the canned goods and organize. Also, I have to go through all the canning and cull that. I am not canning fruit like I used to when the kids were younger and so, I need to get rid of jars also. It does feel good though to have space on the shelf.

    First though, the Christmas tree and all the ornaments need to be taken down and put away. It's time!

  • CrazyDaisy_68
    18 years ago

    LOL Marcia! At least I didn't get lost in any closets yet! LOL

    Actually I signed up for the "Flylady" emails again. I like her idea of having routines but never could stick with HER routines. I am too much of a rebel to have someone TELL me what to do! LOL. I am trying to put aside by rebellousness and try to follow her method and see how much of a difference it will make! So far I followed her Zone Mission for yesterday. I am making babysteps! LOL

  • zone_envy
    18 years ago

    Just wanted to let you guys know that you can get milk jugs in Thunder Bay. Dairyland milk comes in 2L and 4L jugs. I haven't seen it in the grocery stores, but we buy ours from the Village Market on Hodder Avenue. Hope this helps!

    Cindy

  • lilmonicker
    18 years ago

    Thanks Cindy... I will have to look over there.

    - Andrew

  • SeaOtterCove
    18 years ago

    Well, I've been in the clean up mode as well. So far just out of my quilting/familyroom I've pulled out two feet of magazines, 3 garbage bags of junk, 1 box of stuff to give away (I'm allergic to scented candles, hence mainly full of candles and candle holders given as gifts), and a box of garden ornaments. I forgot I had a bee windchime, I've had it for over three years, never been out! I'm only getting started. If I don't like it and it hasn't been used no matter who gave it to me, it is gone. This includes wedding presents that I've never liked.

    My problem is the same as Angs'. We should start a pack rat club. I'm Syreeta and I'm a pack rat. I just recently gave away a box of Archie Comics, it had comics in the box from 1978. I have no kids, haven't read them in decades, yet they have moved through six houses. I'm bad....

    Syreeta

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