What to Keep and What to Toss

I am sorting through years of accumulated stuff. Where does it all come from? Why can’t I seem to toss things? I have cards from too many Christmases past, too many Father’s Days past, and from birthdays I’d rather forget. I know why I’ve kept some. They are the memories that my brain tries to keep alive. Others I’ve kept because I forget that they are there.

I just cleaned out my closet, passing shirts and pants that I either don’t like or I have too many of them. I bought dress pants and shirts for my job as a nursing supervisor. Now, I don’t need so many as I did then. Button down shirts and dress slacks were what I was expected to wear. Now that I am retired, I wear jeans and most often a tee shirt.

Papers and paid bills accumulate. I know somewhere in my attic are old check book stubs form fifteen plus years, tucked in among the paid bills of that era.

I have been sorting and shedding of some of these things. Yesterday, I took photos to Wal-Mart to have copies made. Not for me, but for my brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. They were shared memories that were passed to me in photos from my mother-in-law Retha Morrison. They were photos that I was sure that they did not have, but I wanted to keep them for my kids as well. I know, I made more and not less things, but they are memories and memories were meant to share.

Our church school is having a yard sale to support the school next week and that has spurred me into a “clutter reduction frenzy.” I guess I shouldn’t say frenzy. It’s more like a higher gear of movement for me. I don’t do frenzies any more unless a wasp or yellow jacket ends up in my pants.

Slowly, ever so slowly I am trying to reduce the burden that my kids will have when I shuffle off this mortal coil or if I should decide to downsize and move to a smaller home when I am the only person living here.