As I worked, I realized that many of these boxes were packed while I was living in Kenya and have been moved twice, but never opened since. That was almost three years ago.
Some boxes were filled with trash: old paycheck stubs or bills that had been paid online, stacked in a corner and then tossed in to a box in the madness of packing. There was a LARGE collection of trash bags, boxes and containers...
Other boxes were a mix of textbooks and personal reading books. My bookshelves were organized, not by author or genre, but by type of book, (for example: text books, scrapbooks, "to read", favorite books, borrowed books) but since everything was packed quickly, I did not pack my bookshelves and everything was mixed together. This meant there were also quite a few books in a DONATE box.
Still other boxes were filled with memories: old letters, mix CDs from high school, and some items that I kept when we cleaned out my great-grandparents home.
I worked for four hours...listening to playlist after playlist, drinking my coffee (and water, of course) as I opened box after box, talking and laughing to myself about all that had been collected and has been stored for the last two years.
{my great-grandpa's name tag and uniform patch, from
when he worked as a milkman for Adohr Farms,
found in a box of my Nana's sewing needles and thread}
{About halfway through the process, when I stopped to go to the bathroom,
but ran there and back to make sure I could be around
if someone was actually trying to get in to the storage units
on either side or directly across from mine.}
{I'm sure you can't tell, but it is sorted:
trash, keep, donate to the Mariners Resource Center,
donate to a Library, give away as presents. Papa, do you see the
Cardoza DiLallo Harrington sign in the corner? I'm keeping that!}
{A small glimpse of the untouched-half of the space...
if anyone is looking for a small "apartment refrigerator", I have a spare!}
{The storage facility does not have a dumpster on-site,
so everything was tucked in to my car...
I drove straight home and unloaded,
mostly in to the recycling bin and trash dumpster.}
Some boxes were filled with trash: old paycheck stubs or bills that had been paid online, stacked in a corner and then tossed in to a box in the madness of packing. There was a LARGE collection of trash bags, boxes and containers...
Other boxes were a mix of textbooks and personal reading books. My bookshelves were organized, not by author or genre, but by type of book, (for example: text books, scrapbooks, "to read", favorite books, borrowed books) but since everything was packed quickly, I did not pack my bookshelves and everything was mixed together. This meant there were also quite a few books in a DONATE box.
Still other boxes were filled with memories: old letters, mix CDs from high school, and some items that I kept when we cleaned out my great-grandparents home.
I worked for four hours...listening to playlist after playlist, drinking my coffee (and water, of course) as I opened box after box, talking and laughing to myself about all that had been collected and has been stored for the last two years.
{my great-grandpa's name tag and uniform patch, from when he worked as a milkman for Adohr Farms,
found in a box of my Nana's sewing needles and thread}
{About halfway through the process, when I stopped to go to the bathroom,but ran there and back to make sure I could be around
if someone was actually trying to get in to the storage units
on either side or directly across from mine.}
{I'm sure you can't tell, but it is sorted: trash, keep, donate to the Mariners Resource Center,
donate to a Library, give away as presents. Papa, do you see the
Cardoza DiLallo Harrington sign in the corner? I'm keeping that!}
{A small glimpse of the untouched-half of the space...if anyone is looking for a small "apartment refrigerator", I have a spare!}
{The storage facility does not have a dumpster on-site, so everything was tucked in to my car...
I drove straight home and unloaded,
mostly in to the recycling bin and trash dumpster.}
It feels great to have lost all of that stuff...one step further from being classified as a hoarder.
4 comments:
sweet pun, Kurt.
I LOVE cleaning too! And I absolutely love getting rid of stuff. It is OH so liberating!
A bit of milkman trivia for you: the man who started Adohr farms named the company for his wife--her name was Rhoda. My Grandpa John shared that little tid bit with me several times over my childhood and, thanks to technology, I was actually just able to authenticate that story with Google.
Hi there,
Came upon your post quite by accident, but really had a laugh because we moved into our current home about 15 years ago and we STILL have a couple of boxes in the garage. I figure if we haven't needed it in all this time - I probably don't need it ever...But I don't want to open them for fear of "OMW! Looks what I found!" and then having more to clean! So I ignore them! :-D
Have a great weekend.
Cheers,
L.
I just read your entire post including the statement about the Cardoza-Di Lallo sign...I love that thing; so if it takes up too much space I'll take it back...
p.s. We founded that company in 1971...this is my 40th year in business...no wonder I'm tired most of the time...
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