July 20, 2024
Projects Unfinished, Clutter and Guilt
July 29, 2024
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Drawers, Cabinets and Hidey-Holes
It's late July in rural Iowa, so the humidity and heat are nearly unbearable. We are surrounded by hundreds of acres of corn, which can add up to 4,000 gallons of water vapor to the atmosphere per day. Add that to temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s, and you know it's time to spend more time in the air conditioning.
I decided to start sorting through the drawers and cabinets in our house. These are also things I still like but have no place to display—so much stuff. I was relentless and narrowed the drawers down to just a few items. Whenever I look at something, I ask myself, if I had one suitcase to move all my "treasures," would this justify space? It's helped me decide what is and isn't essential anymore. This weekend's decluttering and purging includes sentimental items, such as the set of tea towels my dad embroidered when he was about ten years old. He and his brother were sledding down a hill on the farm I now live on and slammed into a tree, bruising his liver. This would have been in the mid-1940s, so the doctor put him on bed rest for about a month. To combat boredom, my grandma taught him how to embroider. Can you imagine a 10-year-old boy of this age being on bed rest with no TV, cell phone, or electronics whatsoever? It wouldn't be a good situation.
Anyway. I have a set of tea towels, which I have never used, stored in a drawer in a cabinet in my living room. It's one of the few things I put right back in. Having lost my dad to cancer 20 years ago, every time I see them, I think of him and smile. I wrote a note explaining who made them and why and pinned it to the towels. They will always stay with me and tell the story when I'm gone. My kids may not want them, nor are they obligated to keep them, but they will know the history behind them.
I know I have a box for the shed sale and a box with items to post on Etsy, like items brought back from Denmark when my mom and her parents went there in 1973 to visit my grandfather's family. My mom treasured these items, and I've enjoyed having them, but they have no real meaning to me. I hope someone connected to Denmark will wind up with them and treasure their purchase.Every time I get through another drawer, I feel the weight of all the stuff lighten. This feeling is what keeps me going.
Pre-retirement downsizing can often bring about a lot of stress, but it's important to remember that it's also an opportunity for a fresh start, like a less stressful, warm climate simple retirement. In my experience, taking the process one step at a time and focusing on the positive aspects of downsizing can make a huge difference in reducing stress.My first realization: Why did I buy so many project pieces? And why didn't I actually complete them? Ugh.
Last weekend, I started cleaning out my little shed in the backyard. It's where I squirreled away miscellaneous items I purchased to "do something" with. I love going to flea markets, antique shops, junk stores, etc. Add to that my love for surfing Pinterest, design magazines, and websites, and before I knew it, I had more projects than I could ever finish, or at this point, even want to.
From pieces of architectural salvage to containers to old furniture, I have it all. Every time I went into the shed, I felt nothing but guilt for not getting those projects done and using them. About a year ago, I decided to stop buying project pieces, but I had not dealt with the pile I already had. Last Saturday, I decided it was time.
Holy crap. I started a couple of piles: one to clean and try to sell in a shed sale (more on this below), one to throw away/burn, and one very small pile to actually complete. I got a pretty good workout hauling things to the dumpster and burn pile, so there was a positive outcome. I also completed the one project I set aside to complete - combining an old enameled tabletop and a washstand base into a plant table for our porch.
I'm working on cleaning the items for the sale, cursing while I'm out in the Iowa July heat and humidity scrubbing grime off an old cabinet. But, I have motivation. We added a new deck to the back of our house last summer, along with a full-length covered porch on the front and new siding on the entire exterior of the house. Our budget was depleted before we got the railings around the back deck, so it was put on hold.
Fast forward to this summer, and we decide to install a dog door so the dogs can go in and out as they please into a fenced-in area, which includes the deck. We found some old chain-link panels, an exercise pen, and the portable fencing we take camping and cobbled together fencing. But it looks lousy. When I started cleaning the shed, I realized I could gather quite a few things up for a yard/shed sale in a couple of weeks. And all the earned funds could go towards getting the new railings and better fencing Wrigley and Charlie deserved. It's all about Wrigley and Charlie now that the kids have left the nest.
On August 3, I'll be having a sale. Between now and then, I'll be scouring the cabinets, closets, basements, garage, and sheds for all the stuff we don't need but might make someone else happy. Hopefully, they will finish the project pieces and let me know how they turned out.
Next up: Drawers, Cabinets and Hidey-holes
