Saturday, May 29, 2010

Pack Rat Am I

I have watched The Hoarders Show on TV once, no, twice, but it was the same episode, so I guess that would be once. Although I am not one of these people, I could have been if my husband weren't here to remind me that I don't need all those bandaids or all those nails or all those books or all those fill in the blank. Right now, I am cleaning, organizing, sorting and making throw-away/giveaway/keep piles in what was my Mom's basement apartment in our house. I did not get the Pack Rat gene from Mother. Before she came to live with us in 2003, she downsized most of her stuff by garagesaling, donating or throwing away. She did this with seemingly no sentimental attachments. Ah, there the key word~sentimental. If you are born with this tendency, watch out because stuff will accumulate. When I taught, I had a teacher's assistant for most of my teaching career. I don't know how anyone worked with me because my "I may need that" was always growing. I kept old magazines so the children could cut out pictures to enhance science, social studies or art units. I needed lots of yarn for making tactile letters for phonics or yes, art projects. Of course many, many books to look at and to expand their young minds. One of my assistants, who is still my friend, helped me by saying,"Throw this out." I guess I needed someone to tell me I didn't really need the quantity of stuff to educate.
Now, I am once again going through tons of pictures, both photographs and paintings and you name it items and having a hard time getting rid of anything. You will be pleased to know that today, I emptied the entire contents of one drawer and kept only one item. This one thing was for my husband's motorcycle and I asked him if he needed it before throwing it out and lo and behold he wanted it. I am making progress. I have taken countless bags, bulging and heavy, to the dump. I have taken several bags to Goodwill. On Friday, AmVets will have a myriad of items that will find new homes. So, slowly but surely, I am making headway. Will I ever be totally cured from the ailment of packratitis? Probably not. There is something cleansing and cool about giving up stuff. Isn't that what Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to do? I wonder if he was a packrat too.

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