Reflections on Stuff

We have been slowly working on de-cluttering the basement in preparation for the finishing project that will start soon after the new year. We went through all of the toys in November, then took time off during the busy holiday season, and now have to finish before we go back to school next week.

When we went through the toys, I thought "Boy these kids have a ton of stuff." And for the most part, they were O.K. with getting rid of a lot of it since they don't play with much of it anymore. It pained me to turn around and buy new Christmas toys, knowing that one day I would be hauling that stuff out of the basement to throw away too. But the kids are growing, and need different things at different ages, so I know its a necessary evil.

I, however, am not growing anymore. And I thought we did a fairly decent job of keeping the clutter down somewhat in our basement (at least compared to some other houses I've seen!). But every time we clean out stuff, we get rid of more and more stuff that I thought I needed to keep, and then years later realize I don't.

Examples:

Books: I never re-read a book. Never. Yet I keep every book that I bought (and compared to how much I read, I really don't buy many at all and got a lot of use out of the library before I got my Kindle). A few years ago I wondered why I kept struggling to find room for these books that I never intended on opening again. So I got rid of almost all of them, keeping the ones that were sentimental to me for some reason. Then, last month, I realized the "sentimental" books had not been touched since I decided I needed to keep them, and I didn't even know I had them. So out those went as well. We now have one box of books (disregarding the kids' books), and half of those are keepsakes like yearbooks.

Baby Clothes: Today I found several containers of "special" baby clothes. Lots of Maria's dresses, and lots of "firsts" - first pair of shoes, first snowsuit, first swimsuit, first Miami shirt, etc. And I realized that I have pictures of the kids in each and every one of these outfits. They're never going to wear them again. So I got rid of almost all of them, only keeping that first pair of booties, coming home from the hospital outfits, and baptism clothes. Each kid has one container of team shirts - from baseball, soccer, dance, etc. And I immediately gained two shelves worth of space.

Wedding Gifts: Over the years we have gotten rid of several gifts that we know we will never use. Recently we have come across lots of candle sticks - both brass and crystal. When we got married, we decided we would use our candlesticks - no need to save them for a special occasion. But after one use, we realized candlesticks can make a huge mess and are not worth the hassle (O.K. so we were playing 3-man at midnight on the patio of our first apartment in a light breeze, but still). So we quit using them, but felt we should keep them. Until last week, when we finally threw them away.

I guess the moral of the story is the older I get, the more I realize that it's the memories that matter, not the stuff. And the actual stuff doesn't bring back any memories that weren't already in my head. So on with the de-cluttering of the stuff, but hopefully not the memories!