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The Sudden Danger of Weeping

Who knew cleaning house could be such an emotional rollercoaster. The dumpsters I ordered arrived this afternoon, but in the morning I began The Great Purge of ‘07 by attacking the buffet. For years now I’ve just been cramming papers and art projects and whatnot into the drawers, willy-nilly. They were full to bursting. So with great determination I started pulling everything out, to sort like so:

  • Junk to be thrown in the trash.
  • Junk to be given away.
  • Papers to be recycled.
  • Papers that should be shredded (J has a shredder now, so I have to haul that all over there).
  • The best examples of the little man’s artwork, to be stored more neatly in a rubbermaid bin.

Some of it was easy to blow through but I’m such a sentimental sap. I felt the need to too closely inspect particular artifacts. The worst? Coming across sympathy cards, from the pregnancies we lost. Finding each one and pausing to process it slowed me down the most. But I am not keeping those (no need of a repeat a year or two down the line). Then there were all the random letters and postcards from friends in faraway places. I used to hang on to all of those, but look where that’s gotten me. I don’t want to end up a crazy cat lady living in a garbage house. So I re-read some before gingerly placing them in the recycling bin. Which I have to get out of the house before I change my mind.

the little man's rainbow umbrella

Bonus: The great purge is not a one woman job. Soon I’m going to break for dinner and a movie with J (likely The Namesake, though he’s lobbying heavily for Blades of Glory). Then I’m going to rope him into helping me. A lot of this detritus is his anyhow. Like the multiple computer towers and monitors languishing in the basement.
Plus: I’m glad Pop Astronaut is back.
And: Missing the kid already.

One Comment

  1. zophia wrote:

    OMG! i love cleaning house! i am so jealous! i can’t wait to go through my boxes of stuff again even more so since they have been packed away in hiding for a year now and i don’t even know what is in them.

    Friday, April 6, 2007 at 10:32 am | Permalink

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