Green Room - Week 31 - Day 2

[clauderainsrm]

The new topic is up: https://therealljidol.livejournal.com/1162899.htmlRead more... )

Comments

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Oh dear, SO struggles with this because he's lost so many possessions between out of state moves. He's so petrified of what he calls "losing his memories" that he tends to hoard things that obviously no longer have a place nor function in his current life. Never mind that, but when he starts on ME purging MY OWN STUFF or my mother's, he expects me to be the same way. Nope, I'm at the "clean out the nest" stage that scares the hell out of him because it's a signal that yes, I'm entering cronehood where I no longer give any f*cks.

Whew, didn't mean for that to be an essay but it's a very sore point with me.

[pixiebelle]

I’m normally like your husband, but when I decide to purge something, I don’t regret it. My ex-husband would always argue with me that I needed to keep everything. Like I had a box with my middle school boyfriend’s letters in it and I told my mom to trash it - my ex threw a fit.

I’m sentimental... until I’m not. Then it all goes lol

[xo_kizzy_xo]

I guess I'm not as sentimental as I once thought I was, perhaps? I mean, our attic is full of my old college textbooks, stuffed animals, a dollhouse my mother made for me, clothes I'll never wear again, some furniture left over from my grandparents' house, but it's not like I go up there and relive moments. I can look at a certain dress and say, oh yes, I wore that back when I taught X grade, but that's about it. I no longer have any use for it but it's still there because I'm too lazy to actually start purging :p

[pixiebelle]

I’m getting less sentimental about objects with age (and possibly working through my OCD/hoarding issues). I’m still sentimental, but I took photos of things that I’d like to remember while purging. Now I have a digital reminder that I can keep forever.

I kept things that are very important to me though - things like the piggy banks my dad bought me when I was a baby (one when I was born and it has a funny story), a quilt of my grandma’s that’s still in good shape, etc. Things with very deep, personal ties to me - things I keep out instead of tucked away, never to be seen. But things like cards from my ex-co-workers, etc... not as important and just a waste of space for what really matters.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

...not as important and just a waste of space for what really matters.

Or as I've been told numerous times through my life, "They're just things, nothing more, nothing less. And remember, you cannot take them with you when it's your time." I think that's what motivates my MIL (besides her OCD) to continually purge. You could literally eat off every floor in her house. She doesn't keep anything extraneous on any countertop, no knicknacks, nada. As the family quips, it's like walking into a mausoleum. My SILs are the same way, particularly the one who's had to move around because of BIL's job over the years.

I do keep all my writing and my books, though ;)

[roina_arwen]

Those are things that if I had I would probably take several photos of, and maybe a small piece of fabric from the clothing, and make a scrapbook/memory book of, with labels of what it’s from and/or an associated story/memory.

[roina_arwen]

I totally get that. We have boxes in the garage from when we moved to this house about 20 years ago. We also have an old fashioned Coke machine - the kind that dispenses glass bottles - sitting there taking up room. It’s in workable condition but we’ve never used it. Sigh.