As their kids have grown up, moved out, and started their own families, my parents may have found that they have a little more room in the house, but the detritus of years lingers. We all managed to leave quite a bit of flotsam behind. (I'm sure this is not an uncommon phenomenon.) While we had everyone there, my mom wanted us to go through some of the stuff in the basement and figure out what we wanted to take and what could be gotten rid of. Karen, who's good at organizing, hauled a bunch of boxes out onto the deck and helped to sort through it all.
Most of these things have only been kept around for sentimental value. The clear solution is to take pictures--preserve the memory without the bulk! We ended up with "to keep" piles, "trash/donate" piles, and "to photograph" piles. The photographing fell to me. All the trophies, school art projects, and odder items were lined up and made to say cheese in turn.
Goodbye, frog basket! (Elizabeth thought the frog basket was cool.)
A paper-mache bug. (Or papier-mâché, for snoot value.)
Peter's creatively-spelled Star Trek character mahjong tiles.
I'm told that these are dessicated limes that Peter learned to juggle with. I'm still not clear on whether the dessication happened before or after the juggling. ("We can't throw away those limes! I learned to juggle with those limes!" "It's okay, we'll take a picture of them.") I should add here that I don't recall ever seeing Peter actually juggle.
Mollie helped.
Still helping.
Calling in reinforcements. (Petercat was happy to help too.)
Helping is hard work!
Collectively, we purged a huge pile of stuff. I picked out a very few things to bring home. We just don't have room. But I did take lots of pictures.
Love the pictures of the kitties! Great job on the dejunking. We need to do that here in the worst of ways.
ReplyDeleteHee hee. I love it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! That frog basket really is cute:).
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE IT! Mollie sure likes to get in the middle of things. I'd also love to see more of the pictures of flotsam.
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom
I like the helpers.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, my parents sent home all of the boxes, but just this summer, they found one last one. It's sitting in my closet for me to go through - but it was the one with the most stuff I'd wondered why I hadn't kept.
Like you, though, some stuff are keepers but some can go after being photographed.
That's such a great idea to photograph things instead of keeping them around in boxes! Love the pictures and the journaling!
ReplyDelete1) The frog basket is adorable!
ReplyDelete2) The frog basket is even more adorable with a little kid investigating it!
3) I love, love, love that Peter saved the limes he learned to juggle with! They are really cool looking once they dry out!
4) You could post kitty pictures ever day, and I would still love them! Your kitty pictures are just too too cute!
Remember, thought, that Peter's mahjong tiles were inspired by my artwork during sacrament meeting once, hence the creative spelling. How else do you expect a kid to spell "Sooloo?"
ReplyDelete"...items were lined up and made to say cheese in turn." hehe
Helping IS hard work!!