I didn’t think I was a hoarder –
I’ve watched those programmes on TV and I’ve seen the state real hoarders live in. My spare room is nothing like that but it did need sorting. Plastic crates that were carted from one loft
to the next; a large selection of travel
brochures and tourist information leaflets transported back from the US. It all
takes up a considerable amount of space. This is a new house and a new start
and some things are going to have to go.
Such as? I have collected greetings
cards. I have Wedding cards, Congratulation
on the Birth cards; Anniversary cards; 18th, 21st, 30th
and 40th birthday cards. Do I
really need to keep them all? I have Sorry
You are Leaving cards – leaving where? We’re
Going To Miss You cards from former
work colleagues from over 25 years ago and Welcome
to your new house cards. I’ve moved so many times I can’t even tell which
house these relate to.
I have drawings and works of art
that were once lovingly pinned to the front of the fridge when the kids started
school. Do I really need to keep those? Will they thank me for them? Which way
up do they even go? I have their first shoes, and the
baby shawl. I have the photos, I have them – what more do I need?
It’s not as if I have kept every
back issue of Jackie or My Guy magazine like some hoarders, but I do have
treasured old records. Why? I have
nothing to play them on. It’s all very good keeping an original vinyl of
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell because of the happy memories but I’m
never going to listen to it.
The wedding dress produced
shrieks of hysterical laughter from the teenager – but we could both fit into
it (not, I hasten to add, at the same time). What an earth am I really keeping it for? It’s a two piece suit from
Debenhams and I’ve donated far more fashionable outfits to charity bags over the years.
Sometimes we have to let go.
The cat had great fun playing
with the knitted Clanger my mother made me when I was about five – although that
was retrieved and put back in the box, along with nearly all the birthday
cards, including all the home-made ones,
every Mothers Day Card, every Valentine’s card....
I still have the same number of
plastic crates as when I started my clearing out. I retained the Dressing Up
Princess Diana kit in the hope that one day it might be worth a fortune (definitely
regret not taking that and putting it on e-bay in the US). I did retain the
wedding dress although I’m still not sure why, and the masses of travel
leaflets remain just in case, you never know, I might go back there one day.
And I suppose that’s the dilemma
that all hoarders face – you never know I might need it. We never think highly likely that I might not.
Despite a sub-conscious yelling BIN BIN BIN I took most things out of my
boxes, wistfully reminisced, and then put them straight back in.
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