Things ...

Are you the sort of person that keeps things or gets rid of everything?

I am an in-between person I think.  I don't really cope with clutter, though it seems to be everywhere I look.  I try very, very hard to not hang onto things but I struggle to let go of them all at the same time, especially things I have an emotional attachment to.

I think I am better than I used to be, though I am not 100% sure on that.  I was reading that I have a significant wool stash much more than I currently have on my shelves apparently there is at least half a dozen plastic tubs of varying sizes in the roof.  So in a way I see the wool I have and think wow I am really good at not hoarding my wool, the only problem is I am actually not as good as I think at not hoarding.

I don't hoard in the same sense that they make tv shows about.  I do remember back to an early boyfriend and his mother had a real problem.  She honestly thought she didn't have a problem, except for the fact that there was barely a walkway through the house for stuff and there was at least 3 rooms in the house that you couldn't enter partly because there was so much stuff in there it wasn't possible to get the doors open!  She thought of herself as a collector, her particular collections was dolls and their accessories.  I remember she used to call them her babies!  She also had ready access to stuff because she worked in admin in one of the Mission Australia sorting centres so every day she brought something new home!  I found it really hard being in that house.

I do however hold onto things perhaps long after they should be gone or at the very least packed away and there are things that are at the top of my list to grab should we ever have to evacuate.

Some of these things include:

This is a picture of my mum's first mixmaster about 45yrs old, a picture I painted when I was 3yrs old and my first teddy.  I also have my first two dolls and my pram (these are all in the roof space so they would be slightly harder to grab in the event of an evacuation.) 

Some pearls that were given to me by my mum from a very special lady, two Royal Doulton crazy tea sets one belonging to my Nan and one to my Nannie both of whom have long since passed away.  I have more Royal Doulton that I would grab but these would be at the top of my list.  

This cheese knife honestly it is something I treasure dearly.  It was given to me on the last Christmas we had with my grandparents.  I was 18 and such a complete brat about it.  I could not for the life of me understand what my Nannie was thinking giving me a cheese knife.  All the other grandkids got a box of chocolates and I got this damn cheese knife.  I threw a tantrum (yes truly at 18 I really was incredibly ungrateful!) and my Nannie produced a box of chocolates for me as well.  What none of us knew was that slightly over one month later my Nannie and Pa would die together in a tragic accident that changed our family forever.  Nannie had written on the box that it was always kept in until it fell apart.  Before that happened I had the words engraved on the handle and it reads "Cathy, I hope you will find plenty of use for this in years to come.  lots of love Nannie & Pa '89."  That was 25 years ago in Feb 2015, the chocolates are long gone but I still have this knife. 

 

This one I know is a little morbid but it is still very precious to me.  These are the ashes of my first baby - well not actual baby but my fur baby.  Ruts was a beautiful dog he had such a beautiful temperament and he was a brindle coloured cardigan corgi and he was very treasured as I got him after someone so incredibly dear to me died so suddenly in a workplace accident.  

These are my boys today they will never replace Ruts but Obi & Chewy have certainly put their stamp on my heart!  

Of course there are the standard things I would try to grab like some clothes (and I know from past experience of evacuation the best clothes to take are the ones in your dirty washing basket (unless you are a freak who never has any clothes in a washing basket because they are so completely up to date with washing!) mainly because these are the clothes you like and wear!  Toiletries and scripts for medication rather than medication itself because you never know how long you might be out so try to keep your scripts in the one place if you take regular medication.  Identification because this can be a really time consuming and costly process if it needs replacing.  And of course I would try to grab my photos and my lp records.  However, both of these things are in big plastic tubs at the back of the shed buried under other things.  I have a large number of photos on external hdd so I would grab those if there was not time to get anything else.  Most importantly there is a small jewellery box I would also grab.  

I try hard not to hold onto things but I really find it difficult with the things that hold a sentimental meaning for me.  What are you like?  Do you hold onto things or are you able to easily detach yourself from them emotionally to let them go?  

hugs
Cathy xoxo 

Video YouTube:  Cats in the Cradle - Harry Chaplin