Happy 2023! Every year I am excited to turn the page and join the crowd in embracing a fresh start. I will probably feel the same until I am reduced to a pile of dust (hopefully not cluttering up my sons' living rooms).
This year, I decided to use my break between academic semesters to purge some of the evil that has been living in my attics (yes, plural) since we moved to the house in 2007. Let me preface with some clutter backstory: in 2005, we packed up our kids and dog and moved to a rent house in Saginaw. We began plans to build our house on the ranch, and we rented a smaller house less than a mile from our property while the new house was constructed. Because the rental was fairly compact and I was still a Gen X'er with too much crap, I procured a storage room to hold what didn't fit in the rental.
Fast forward two years, and the build was complete. Joyfully, I amoeba'd my stuff into the new house, filling up all the spaces with our belongings from the rental and storage. Some of the storage boxes I had forgotten about, their contents now a permanent mystery. So, they went to live in the attic. I have a pretty roomy attic, with one over the garage and another in the house where the HVAC lives. You can see where this is going...
As the kids grew, so did their stuff. When they OUTgrew toys, clothes, school papers, I boxed the stuff up in plastic tubs and sent it to its eternal resting place up the attic stairs. When minimalism began its siren song for me, I culled the herd of stuff in my view, purged the cabinets and closets, and proudly claimed my minimalist card. Oops. I forgot about the attic.
Fast forward to my parents' deaths. When your parents die, and you're forced to reckon with all THEIR belongings, some of which trigger your childhood memories, you really begin to rethink the need to keep EVERYthing. Now you have their stuff AND your stuff. Tossing their memories seems a sacrilege early in the grieving process. You aren't ready. Plus they had some of your own memories in their cache. So, it goes in your attic. At least, it went in mine.
Jump ahead to empty nest time. The kids are grown and flown. They have places of their own where their stuff lives. They have taken what means most to them, and they are probably fairly spartan given their current incomes and lifestyles. You are left with their surplus. Plus your parents stuff in the attic that you kept. Oh, and don't forget all the stuff from your storage room you put up there two decades ago.
It's a wonder I didn't just walk away and let the bank have it all!
But I didn't, and I set a (very) lofty goal of getting these attics cleaned out. As we sit in the first week of 2023, I would say I met about 2/3 of this goal. The Mayor and College Boy helped me clamber over rafters and bring down box after box, getting them to where I could survey and inventory contents. It was a walk down memory lane, to say the least. Many trash bags and donation piles were made.
The truest of true confessions here: I rented a storage room again. Now, it's not what you think (please don't delete my blog forever after reading that!): I really wanted a space to stack and organize what remained without sacrificing my parking space for Hildy, my not-yet-paid-for BMW. Plus my barn cats consider all my stuff their toys/litter box, so we weren't having THAT. A storage space is not my permanent solution; it is the best temporary one. I will put the contents back on the ranch in 2023, I promise!
My OCD self is pleased with the current state. It was time to assess and settle up my memories. I reminded myself countless times of my mantra: Things only have the meaning we assign them. They have no intrinsic value. It definitely aided me in my decision making (toss/keep/donate).
You may not have an attic or garage full. You may still have your parents and your kids. Regardless of your current life cycle position, you probably can take a look inside the closet and consider a more minimalist outlook. I am glad I went back to the beginning to spend my break doing just that!
Have a wonderful new start tp the year, minimalist friends!
(PS the title of today's blog is an homage to one of my favorite books in childhood, Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews!)
