A Memory Hoarder

Okay, I have a plan for Monica's Closet.  I'm on Day Two of said plan and so far, so good.

As mentioned, it is fairly organized in there but a few totes have been filled with randomness that has to be dealt with.

I started yesterday with the non-memorabilia ones.  I took two boxes of picture frames, stuff intended for projects "someday", and items leftover from the old house to Goodwill today.

Now I've gone through a tote that was filled with items from my childhood. Stuffies, jewelry, notes to/from friends, and just junk that one collects when you're a kid. An actual coin purse, with coins included, is a perfect example.  I managed to make two totes fit into one and I have another box ready for Goodwill now.

Sidebar: I found a letter from my high school guidance counselor assigning me to one day of in-school-suspension for skipping trigonometry.  I really don't remember that happening at all. So, it was kind of fun to see it and it provides a good example of the stuff I've kept.

Another fun thing is a small box that I have kept since I was in the seventh grade.  My best friend moved away that year.  She gave me a small box of her keepsakes because she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep them safe. (they were traveling in a converted school bus and lived in poverty for years)  I was meant to return them to her someday.  Well, someday is apparently thirty years later. 

When I unearthed it, I immediately texted her.  "Address please!" and attached a photo of the box.  Almost immediately, I received a text back with her address.  I will put it in the mail tomorrow.  Hooray me for finally returning it and hooray her for having a piece of her childhood finally returned.  I'm super excited about it.

I've taken some things and placed them in one of our china cupboards.  I have a set of ceramic animals that my paternal grandma gave me when I was very young, 4,5,6 years old.  She died when I was six.  It's nice to have them in view instead of tucked into a box in the back of a closet.

So, this brings me to tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be a little more intense.  I have taken out two totes full of stuff.  Newspaper clippings, graduation announcements, photos, ticket stubs, and the list goes on.  These boxes represent the last twenty-five years.

The goal is to pare it down to one tote only.  Once I accomplish that monumental task, the next goal is to make scrapbooks of the remaining stuff.  I think culling through these boxes is going to take a few days of on-and-off work; which means it will take at least a week.  The scrapbooks will take significantly longer and that's why I've planned to fit everything into one tote.  Because that's where this stuff will probably live for quite a while.

I set my goal as A Box A Day.  The intention is to finally get this project done and more importantly: not get overwhelmed. Thus resulting in stuffing it all back into the closet; which is perhaps, probably, how we have found ourselves in this situation now.

I told Kevin's mom what I was doing and she said "You're always so good at doing that stuff."  It was nice to hear that she has that perception because while in the midst of this mess, I feel like a hoarder. A memory hoarder.