The weather yesterday was unseasonably warm and what did I decide to get done?? Clean the basement! UGH! This is a chore that we complete about once a year although it should be done more often. It had gotten so bad down there that you could barely walk through without being molested by a bike pedal or extension cord! I talked a couple of weeks ago about holding onto stuff we don't need and mentioned a table that my youngest daughter wanted that was in the garage. Guess what?! It isn't there anymore! WOOHOO! My step son moved into his first apartment on Friday and we gave it to them with a stipulation. DO NOT ever get rid of it! I don't care what it looks like, but you better give it back when you are done. For what reason? Well, it was the only way I could get my daughter to agree to let it go - LOL! She would not have been so understanding about anyone else having the table, but for her oldest step brother, its all good. She loves him to death and trusts that the table will come back again - and so do I. 
About the garage cleaning - This time is was not (we) that cleaned it, but (I) that cleaned it - all by my lonesome. I was perfectly fine with that. Sometimes it is nice to just have some time completely alone - even if it is while cleaning out a dirty, gross, dusty, spider-ridden basement! My hubby put his gorgeous Rousch Mustang out on the lawn and gave it a good cleaning and waxing while I was doing the basement. That baby of his comes first! He is too funny with that car! I wasted no time with the cleaning. I wasn't down there to do the whole "look through every box thing" - I was all about getting as many boxes behind closed doors, and picking up all the miscellaneous trash that had accumulated. My goal was met! Its so clean and open in there it looks like a ball room. Oh, how I can't wait until all the kids are in college so I can knock down a wall and have a pool table and bar down there. Oh yeah!
I did, however come across alot of old pictures while cleaning - pictures that I've been looking for a long time. I plan to scan some of said pictures for black mail purposes! (This is for you Leslie, so I hope you are reading this!) These are pictures from junior high, but first I must weed through them and put all the ones of me with my flip, feather bangs to the side. What was up with the hairstyles in 1978-79? Good Lord! I could have poked someones eye out with the points of some of those flips!
Speaking of my step son moving into his own apartment - we also gave him the furniture that we had downstairs in the den. I've had this stuff for about 12 years. It was the first thing I was able to afford to buy when I split up from ex-husband. I had an old futon in our dinky living room and that was about it and I had no money to buy anything. I put it on layaway and paid monthly until I could get it paid off and delivered. I remember the day they delivered that furniture like it was yesterday. Believe it or not, it was one of my "success" moments. A moment I felt like I had really accomplished something. Seeing new furniture delivered and watching my small children jump up and down on it like it was a Christmas present - well, I still have pictures of that day. Simple thing getting new furniture and something a lot of people take for granted. For me, it was another defining moment, a moment where I was moving ahead, putting that one foot in front of the other. And just like that, POOF, it was gone. I felt stupid for being upset about it and I didn't tell a soul - until now. It was old and worn out from all the kids, parties and such. But what memories that furniture holds for me are in my heart. My step son will go on to have good memories with that furniture also. Memories of his new place, his freedom. He will one day look back on that worn out furniture the way I looked at my old futon. And when he dispenses of it, it will be a step forward for him. And life moves on.....
So, on our "Spring Forward" day, let all take a spring forward into new memories. Here's to all the new ones!
Cheers! Happy Sunday! 
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I would like this to be a lazy Sunday, but I doubt it will be. I really need to go through some more closets and weed out old stuff. We have enough miscellaneous cords and cables for computers and whatnot to outfit an electronics store. Extra monitors, mice, keyboards, old tv's, and the list goes on. I really need to get rid of some of it. I ask myself this question several times a year,
"Why do I hold onto this stuff"? !
I pretty much figured it out years ago - my father was a pack rat and I mean a MAJOR pack rat. When I was growing up, it seemed that every year a new storage building would pop up at the back of our yard. By the time my parents moved out of that house, there were at least 4 large and 1 small that lined the yard! My dad said that this was all the stuff he "needed" to keep. Yet, he continued to add to the collection of crap he had back there. Walking into those buildings was like going to a yard sale. This is probably due to the fact that everything there he bought at a yard sale!! Boxes upon boxes filled with miscellaneous screws and bolts. When you ask him what he needed all that for - cause he might be looking for that one screw one day. Is is that hard to run to the hardware store and spend 50 cents on a whole box of them if needed?! GEEZ!
I noticed years ago that I was becoming the same way. But I've never been able to reach his status because I simply don't have the room to put it all. I'm confident I could do it though if I didn't have these restrictions! Right now, our basement - which is actually part of the "living" area of the house, is slam full of junk. Some of it I really do want/need to keep, but the majority could go for sure. So why do I hang onto it? Well, the old dining room table and chairs takes up the most room. The reason I keep it is because when I got our new dining set over a year ago, my youngest daughter was bummed. She loved the old set that we had used all of her life. She begged me not to get rid of it and save it for her to use one day. She was 12 yrs old at the time. So what is a mother to do? Say NO - I want it out of here? Your memories aren't important?? Of course not - so it sits in the basement taking up an inordinate amount of space. I realize it will be years and years before she could possibly use this thing and by the time she can, she won't WANT to use it. But I keep it none the less because believe me, she would notice if it were gone. She doesn't notice that she can barely walk through her room because of the piles of clothes, but she WILL notice if that table were to disappear!
You wouldn't believe it by looking, but my husband and I actually got rid of about 2 truck loads of stuff last summer out of that room. Guess what? Its filled up again! We probably donated 5 large boxes of miscellaneous cords and cables - but we kept another 5 boxes. Have we touched them since then - maybe once. Will we use any of it - probably not. But just as soon as we dispense of them, we will need something that was in there. And the answer is NO, we cannot just go to the electronics store and buy a new one - why do that, we already have it!
As far as the computer monitors sitting in the den downstairs - this one is NOT my fault! They are too heavy for me to move, and to date, I haven't been able to get anyone to move them out of there. After all, where would put them?? Like how I take the blame off myself for these?!
So, back to the question, "why do we hang onto this old stuff"? Some for sentimental reasons, some because we might need it one day, and some because we are too lazy to move it! Will we fix it one day? Probably not until all the kids have gone to college and we decide to downsize our home. I'm OK with that. There is something comforting about weeding through it once a year, finding some old momento you thought you'd lost and tucking it back into a box to be buried again. One day, this is all we will have left to comfort us and our children when our time is up. Maybe they will have a big storage building to put the stuff in OR maybe they will finally get rid of it.
Happy Sunday!
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