Friday, November 26, 2010

Out With the Old ...

It's fall, and it's time to change out the closets. This means that I have to take all the summer clothing out of the closets and drawers, store them properly, and take out the winter clothing. Stuff that doesn't fit any more is boxed up and taken to charities, given away to people who can use them, or thrown out. Sometimes there is a bit of alteration required. For some reason the waistbands tend to shrink over the summer.

I also tend to find "stuff" that has accumulated that we no longer need. Since I still teach part time, I find papers and magazines to be recycled, pencils and pens that no longer work, books ready to donate to library or writing group, and other things. It's a busy time.

My kids tell me that I hang on to things I no longer need. Maybe so, but I think a lot of the accumulation stems from the fact that my days are very busy and often I'm too tired to deal with the hassle of deciding what happens to each item. When I come home, it's all I can do to put on a pot of decaf coffee, sit down and unwind. It seems when I lie down, exhausted, my mind doesn't want to slow down and I can't sleep. So the next morning I wake up exhausted, and we start all over.

But twice a year I manage to make time to dig around and sort through as much as I can stand. I avoid it like the plague the rest of the year, but it’s a necessary evil. Sometimes I find things that remind me of happy times, and I relieve them a little, like the little bow and arrow set my daughter insisted on purchasing at the Renaissance Fair. Other times I shake my head and wonder what possessed me to spend my time and money on an item, like the striped sweater from Old Navy. Both are in boxes, ready to go to go somewhere else. I have one closet done, several more to go. I can do this.

Otherwise, where will I put all my new stuff?

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