Getting Rid of Stuff
by
Margaret Cracknell
As a garage sale freak I have an abnormal amount of junk in my house. It shows itself in knickknacks, over-stuffed closets, books lying on top of full bookcases, kitchen drawers that won't shut, and a basement with shrinking floor space.
Saving everything comes to me naturally. My mother had a dining room table in her bedroom. Her sewing machine was in there somewhere, along with every garment that needed mending, or was past repair but would come in handy to use for something else, lengths of cloth that some day she would make up, balls of wool, newspapers with good ideas in them, and sometimes bits of ironing that had got lost in the melée. Often when you added something to the heap, something else would slip down the pile onto the floor.
Someone asked me the other day if I would ever re-marry. I don't think so. The double closet in my bedroom is crammed as it is. Where would the poor man hang his clothes?
After casual thought, followed by solemn resolution, I've decided to get rid of the junk. But it isn't working. Nothing has left the house yet. There's a pile of games and jigsaws for the Church Fair in May, grocery bags full of books for the Children's Hospital's Book Fair in the spring, a black garbage bag of clothes for the Salvation Army, magazines, old runners, jeans, and a toaster that works most of the time for the soup kitchen, all sitting on the basement floor. I must get them out of there before my grandchildren start sorting through them and saying, "This is perfect for dressing up in."
All the various flower vases, the unused wine glasses, the natural bath sponges, the fancy guest towels, and the over-abundance of Christmas decorations must go. The angel made out of a styrofoam cup with paper doily wings and yellow wool hair stays, as well as the cottonwood snowman made out of a jam jar with twigs for arms and a jaunty top hat. Paper doesn't take up much room so I'll keep all the handmade birthday cards from my grandchildren, and the tiny ones' drawings that were put up on the fridge. They all stay.
My New Year's resolution to get rid of the junk? Well, I have dumped piles of magazines in the blue box for re-cycling. That's a start. Let's hope I have the resolve to carry through with it before warm weather comes and I get garage sale fever again.
