My attempts at tidying are not going well. Organising the airing cupboard doesn’t count in any way at all because it’s already organised neatly with separate piles of towels, sheets and duvet covers, pillow slips and on the shelf above, blankets, pillows and throws, and anything else of a bed-linen nature. I did make slight inroads into the amount of clothes I have, which actually isn’t that many and many of them are quite old, in fact I’m now wearing a favourite t-shirt I bought when i went to the USA for the first time, some time in the 1980’s.
I went through my clothes and did put several to one side, ones I didn’t like for some reason – usually bought in error! I managed to pack two plastic bags with cast-outs, maybe I can do better.
Not throwing things out happens for two reasons, hanging onto stuff for sentimental reasons (someone precious gave it to me, my mum made it for me etc.) and for a misguided desire not to waste stuff – “oh, it might come in handy”, “oh it might be useful one day”, “oh, I might lose weight and it will fit me” – NO! THAT PAIR OF BLACK JEANS WHICH NEVER FITTED PROPERLY, WHICH WERE TOO TIGHT/TOO BAGGY/TOO LONG/TOO CLINGY/ALWAYS FELT UNCOMFORTABLE – no, they will not come in handy, be useful, fit you!! They will always look terrible, feel uncomfortable and make you feel self-conscious. You have hardly worn them – a charity shop will easily sell them and their profit will go to a worthy cause!
So, I did manage to find two bags worth of decent clothes, plus a gazillion scarfs of all lengths, fabrics, colours and styles, and some unused shoes I bought for the delusional reason that I thought they looked nice. They didn’t.
I have made tiny progress which is better than nothing, and in a way, clothes were an easy target. Knickknacks are more tricky – sentimental attachment, family history etc, but I have spoken severely to myself and taken photos of my dad’s egg spoon, a vase which was at home when I was a child, a metal box with a lid which doesn’t fit which came from my grandparents’ home (they both died sixty years ago) Into the bag went other useless but precious items I’m sending to the charity shop (and no doubt they will chuck them out as unsaleable rubbish.)
A huge problem for me is bits of paper – stories I have started,other terrible stories I have written, books full of jottings. I have odd bits of paper with a jumble of words which may be an incantation and no doubt made sense when I wrote them. I have birthday cards I received hundreds of years ago (I exaggerate) newspaper cuttings which don’t seem to refer to anyone I have ever known… I have bags and bags of this rubbish, and please don’t mention the thousands of photos I have of people I don’t know, people who would be a hundred and fifty plus years old if they were still alive –
It’s a struggle, photos are hard to throw out.
I shall continue. Each postcard from a stranger that I chuck out, each interesting but useless object that I hurl at the waste bin, every solitary button which doesn’t match any clothes I have – gone! Discard! Each peculiar item of clothing that I’m sure i never bought which heads to the charity shop – All these things which leave the house for whatever destination, the house itself will breath a sigh of relief and feel a little lighter.
Lois Elsden 