Sorting Clutter

I would like to pretend that I'm all done cleaning up after painting our office, but as I told Old Fuzzy when we painted, 'we will wonder why we didn't paint and clean out the office earlier...until we look in the living room'.

Hint the living room is where we stashed all the clutter from the office. I'm making a dent, but there is still quite a mess in the living room.

There was a reason all that stuff was stuck in that office. Most of it I didn't need, but I didn't want to pitch it either. As I come face to face with the reality of items it is very difficult.

At the earliest days of our truck farming we had sturdy cardboard tomato boxes with lids that we used for shipping perhaps fifty pounds of ripe tomatoes. I was using that to store Bible class material and whatnot in. And I needed to sort through things out of that box.

When we moved into this house (my in-laws' house) 75% of their stuff was still here. Add to that we were downsizing from a two story turn of the century (1900s) house with five bedrooms into a one story ranch style house with three bedrooms.

For a time in our two story house we had eleven people living there. When everyone left—except the last three of us—they didn't take much of their stuff, only pieces of our hearts.

They say that a move is like having a house fire, and that's mostly true. The three of us had to pack and move. I only had a few weeks to accomplish this feat so, much of what we kept just got moved not sorted.

My mother-in-law was very meticulous and careful. She could pack more stuff into a small space than I could begin to imagine. And she saved empty boxes.

As I pulled things out of the box and looked through them I wondered... My adorable cousin and I are sorting through our houses to get rid of clutter.

We've both had to go through left overs after people we loved left us. We aren't wanting to leave things as we received for our kids to wade through.

I worked in a Nursing Home/Retirement Center before marriage and during the first few months after marriage. One thing of the things that is so sad about those current type of living spaces is a person who has lived a long life trying to stuff all of their 60+ years into a room large enough for a horribly uncomfortable bed and a tiny dresser.

It's like trying to stuff an elephant into the Circus Ring leader's tailored suit. There should be a better solution. What shelf can you store your life's memories on?

Back to the box. I've found fond memories in my box. A few cards, one with 'MOM You're Purrfect', of course with a kitten. And 'Christopher's book of Me', or 'Hi, I'm Jenny...'. And school class pictures—a few. Things that tug at your heart and mind from a different century. Might as well be from a different country.

However, I have Grandchildren...and for better or worse they will be influenced by things their grandparents have left them. No, not items in a box, but other things.

My youngest son, Buddy, or Young Fuzzy, was studying in history about knights, castles, and whatnot quite a few years ago now.

"Mom, I want to have for my family crest...".

"No, honey, it doesn't work like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Family Crests were earned. They were given for something someone had done. If you aren't born with one (today), you don't get one."

"But..."

"Sorry, Charlie, that's the way it goes."

I explained that, yes, our family had a 'family crest', but it had been a long time ago. We talked about the different symbols in our crest. One of which was the 'open palm'. According to the explanation an open hand signified the family trait of being giving and generous to others.

An incident came to my mind from back when my husband and I had just purchased a Morgan colt. My grandfather recommended that we get a certain kind of bit from a neighbor down the road about twenty miles.

That neighbor sold us the wrong thing, so the next week we go back, and we take Grandpa with us and he tells the fellow what we want.

"Overcheck bit, Ike. I want an overcheck bit." Ike gets him what he wants, but Ike's got a couple of teenage girls looking to buy a saddle or two. Now, the bit isn't expensive, we're a family and compared to two cute girls buying a saddle we don't stand a chance.

Ike makes some comment about price, and Grandpa replies, "Ike, I've given away more things than you've sold." And he was probably close to right. My grandparents didn't have lots of money but they were still generous.

My mind dredges up another incident from about the same time. We had visitors to look at a greenhouse we had just put up. After showing them around we had some cake and iced tea. As we were talking one of them made the comment, "You guys are so giving."

I don't know what we had given them besides the tour, but their words stayed with me. And I see that generous trait in all of my kids. I find it interesting that it was even a part of a family crest, and it's still with us today.

Matthew 5:40 "And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 41) And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two. 42) Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away."