Greetings…

I spent the weekend involved in one of my infamous “projects”.
The project I finished was painting one of the bathrooms that
was vacated by my son and will be used as the guest bathroom…

Next project on the list is his bedroom, but he still hasn’t
taken 85% of his “stuff” out of there. Do you think it’s
intentional? I wonder if taking it all gives a finality to
it that he subconsciously doesn’t want to face…

Just thinking out loud and practicing psychology 101…

it’s not that he doesn’t come over to pack things to take, it’s
how much he leaves with…

One grocery bag filled with stuff. Stuff from 20 years ago, stuff
from his childhood, and if I really looked, I think he has stuff
from Abraham Lincoln’s childhood. He saves and saved EVERYTHING!!!

I found his little Pacman mug when I opened his closet to see how
much stuff was still in there. I admit, I picked it up and smiled
as a few tears filled my eyes…

Looking around my son’s room and seeing everything he has saved got
me thinking about everything we save in our lives, only to eventually
have to weed out and get rid of down the road. When we save some of
the things, we never see ourselves getting rid of them and for many
people, getting rid of things is impossible to the point of allowing
their stuff to take over their space and lives…

Saving things from our past is a way to hang on to memories, usually
good ones. Some people try to cling to their youth by hanging on to
their stuff and others hang on to things to remind them of a lost
love…

There’s nothing wrong with any of this, however, our past is constantly
being created and stuff from the present will be stuff from the past
in the future and where do you put all this stuff???

I fall somewhere in between when it comes to saving things. I have
moved so many times in my life, saving everything was impossible
and choosing which things to save has always been hard, but necessary…

I do, however, have every little note that my boys gave me along the
way, as well as little gifts they made when they were young. Can’t
bring myself to throw any of that kind of stuff away. I have their
first teeth, their first lock of hair, baby books, etc.

I have albums and albums of photos of my children and of course, their
father. It’s no disrespect to Flyboy because my ex is the father of
my children. As far as keeping anything else from any other relationships,
I would say, nope, all purged. The person I am married to is the love
of my life, my current life and nothing before him seems relevant to
my life today…

Where do you fall when it comes to being a packrat? Do you keep and
save everything to the point it’s in every nook and cranny and in
boxes you haven’t opened in years? Do you save everything to remind
you of years gone by, or do you think you will make a fortune on
eBay some day?

I go through stages when it comes to getting rid of stuff and quite
frankly, it’s time to do some weeding out of another decade of stuff.
Of course there are things that I will never throw out, but when you
open a box and find a 40 foot Juicyfruit gum wrapper chain, you just
gotta ask yourself why you saved it all these years and if it had
sentimental value many moons ago, you’re now old enough to have a
memory that isn’t helping you out…

So, do you save things, and what are the “rules” as to what you keep
and what you toss? What are the reasons you saved the stuff in the
first place and do people run the risk of getting depressed when
they save too much stuff from their past?