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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Stuff

I thought life became less cluttered when your children moved out.
Nope. Not happening here.




When I imagined my empty nest I pictured something quite different than what I live in now.
For starters, I pictured my children's old rooms transforming into lovely guest rooms. 
I pictured the disappearance of old prom dresses, sports equipment, and musical instruments. 
I imagined a garage with just 2 cars, 2 bikes, and just a few tools.
Images of an uncluttered basement danced in my head.


Silly me.




LawyerBoy and Carolyn moved into the city, into a smaller space, so they dropped off some of their stuff. 
LawyerBoy wants to live a simpler life...like a monk. 
He says he no longer needs all this stuff. 
He has no room for it. It's just not necessary. It just takes up space.
Really? 
(Yet he doesn't mind that his parents may appear on Hoarders.)




I admit that I should be blamed for some of the clutter.
Once stuff enters my home I have a compulsion to sift through it, find a place for it, and eventually curse it. 
After a certain amount of time, I pack it in the car and take it to Goodwill. (They love me at Goodwill). 




BigDaddy wonders why I don't head to a thrift store immediately when our children dump things here. 
He wonders why I need to keep it here for awhile.


Silly, silly man. 
I am not without compulsions, believe it or not.


I need to sift through everything so that I'm absolutely certain I don't find anything sentimental, priceless,
or returnable. The sentimental factor gets me often. But I do manage to buck up and donate quite a bit.




My babies have been gone for quite some time now, yet my empty nest remains a work in progress.
I do have one beautiful guest room though. When TeacherGirl moved out I turned her room into a beautiful blue oasis.
BigDaddy sleeps there when he snores.
Just don't open the closet...there's a few prom dresses lurking in there. 




And if you're wondering exactly what my children like to dump here, I'd have to say nothing is sacred.

Ten years ago LawyerBoy left me his dachshund, Archie...and Michael just left us his car.





Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to pray for Lisa.
I believe in the power of prayer.
Hopefully I can see her tomorrow. I miss her terribly.




4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, this one makes me laugh because I could have written it! Would you believe I have 5 boxes of stuffed animals in the downstairs storage room? My husband says just toss 'em, but I say not until the kids have sorted through them. Sigh.
    Your photos are beautiful, though!

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  2. Oh Mary Elizabeth, if you only knew how much I needed to see this post!! Just yesterday I told a friend that my daughters room is about to become a big storage room, for ALL her stuff, (dishes,clothes, books, small furniture, etc...) while she goes off to do a year (or two) of volunteer service. I can't get rid of any of it, because she will need it back when she gets her first job and starts Grad school.

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  3. I'm so glad you girls share my dilemma!!
    I'm always looking at blogs where everything looks neat and organized...but I know everyone is hiding stuff somewhere!
    We're just keepers of the stuff!

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  4. The only way my parents got rid of all "us" kid's stuff was to retire and move to Florida! They said they weren't paying to move it all! :-)

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