For Lent, I decided to keep my New Year’s resolutions.
I’m being facetious of course. But, seriously, I did vow to use Spring Break to hack away at a to-do list I’ve had for a long time.
One is a goal every person my age should have: Do your kids a favor and get rid of that stuff.
Earlier this month I spent a Saturday going through a box that contained roughly 60 years of Mother’s Day cards. After the first hour spent reading each card and putting it in an “undecided” stack, I realized the project needed to move faster. I tossed out all the cards that had only signatures and kept the notes and enclosed letters to read later.
The result of an afternoon of work? One-half a box cleared out. So you see my problem. How can I trash a hand-made card signed in all capital letters and a backward E?
Yesterday was a Spring Break Day dedicated to the boxes. One marked “Newspapers” was exactly that. I lifted the lid and on top was a copy of The Nashville Banner (later swallowed up by the Tennessean) dated November 23, 1992, with the headline “Country Music Legend Roy Acuff Dies” splashed just under the masthead in huge type. I thought it significant that a story that appeared in other big city papers in the entertainment section was front page news in Music City.
I confess that from time to time I have saved a newspaper with a headline I thought outstanding or interesting. I have a Staples paper box full of them. I think on the bottom there is a Denison (TX) Herald announcing Eisenhower’s election. I decided to keep this box and let the kids enjoy a little history.
More later. Stay tuned.
I’m the same way about cards.
Oh, Dot,I’ve said that ‘do your kids a favor’ line a dozen times this year, and haven’t made much headway. Like you, I’m going to have to take a week off for nothing except cleaning out the clutter!
I have papers, photos, and boxes of just ‘stuff’! Keep us posted on your progress…if you can, maybe I can!
I have the same problem, Dot. I commend you on paring down by half!
Me, too! I went thru one box and kept a fourth of it–that still sits where I placed it! Good luck to us all.
If I decrease any of my stuff, it won’t be to do my kids a favor. It could mean I’ve lost my sensitive heart that stacked all this stuff around me in the first place, and much of what’s in my boxes is there because of my kids–like those cards you can’t throw away, Dot. Besides, it’s good fodder for stories and poems!