Things are changing. I don’t mean this allegorically. I mean it very literally. Physical things are moving around, moving out, moving in, and being replaced by other things.
The big dracaena in the dining room has left, replaced (in spirit) by a nice Philodendron hanging over the sink and in front of the windows. The little hutch in the dining room has been replaced by a lovely, Victorian secretary with a glass display top. And the big sectional downstairs has gone to a new home, as has my oak roll-top desk.
Philodendron in the kitchen window
Less is definitely more. The house feels better with less stuff in it. Like there’s finally room to breathe.
Moving things around inevitably results in a lot more work than anyone expects. The new secretary has three shelves, but none of them are as tall as the two shelves on the previous hutch. That meant that tall things needed to be moved to different shelves, but small things moved “indoors” … behind glass. In the process I rediscovered music boxes, pottery, little brass boxes and one big porcelain unicorn.
A child came to visit and went home with five dolls — a 14″ Tony with auburn hair and two Mme. Alexander “Cinderellas” — poor Cinderella and Cinderella at the ball — and two giant rag dolls, Raggedy Ann and Andy. I was made inordinately happy to find a home for a few dolls where hopefully, they will be played with and enjoyed.
Toni by Revlon, 1953
I spent hours last night cleaning a music box and kaleidoscope (it’s the same item with two pieces) using q-tips and that cleaning stuff you use for electronic gear and cameras. The q-tips weren’t small enough and no brush was soft enough. Very old things are so hard to clean. Everything that can break, will … even when you are being as careful and delicate as you can.
I’m not done yet. There’s so much stuff. But I made a dent in it. A pretty big dent. That’s something, right?
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Categories: #Photography, Home, Humor
ANOTHER CRAZY ASS DAY 
DON’T MOVE THE FURNITURE! 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I have decluttered a couple of times this year – but people give me stuff in return – so it is like a roundabout with me.
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I admire you for getting down to doing that. I really must do more myself. We also happen to be storing a lot of other people’s (children’s) stuff. We dare not touch that.
Leslie
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Honesty compels me to point out that I didn’t plan anything. it just happened. The things I plan rarely happen, but life has a funny way of making you do the stuff you’ve been avoiding. Eventually 🙂
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I hear you.
Leslie
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Right! 🙂
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🙂
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Wow! The same is happening in my little cottage! At my age, it is time to clean out spaces and rid my life of stuff! How did we collect all these things!? Trouble is most of them hold sentimental value…: a gift from a piano student, my son’s trophies, a valuable coin collection left by my father and on and on…not to mention the photographs and hardback poetry! I will let you know how it goes…
Myra Dingle..:)
You are doing a great job! 🙂
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Sell the coin collection and get it properly appraised. HE collected coins, not you and you don’t want them to wind up part of an estate and going into the trash … which really does happen. Photographs and books. Sigh. If you have a library or two locally, hard-backed books are usually welcome and you can feel good about that. Paperbacks, unless they are rare or I’m going to read them again (not likely because I don’t read as much as I did in earlier years), well … Salvation Army will sell them for a few cents each and poor people who like to read will get them. Our grocery store in town has a “free” bin into which you can put books, CDs, and other stuff that has no resale value, but might be worth something to someone else.
Otherwise, you know … nature abhors a vacuum. You get rid of stuff and from some hole in the universe, more stuff flows in and fills the gap.
I’m nibbling at the volume, but I have a lot of stuff I’m not willing to just throw away. It’s too valuable. The dolls are the biggest problem because they do have value, but selling them is more effort than I can muster up. When a girl child wander into my world, she always leaves with arms full of dolls. If I can offload another dozen or two, my job will be done.
We gave so many books to the local library, the high school, and the senior center that we have free library rights for life and “please, don’t bring more books.” At least the shelves are no longer exploding! That’s as good as it’s probably going to get unless someone who wants them comes to visit. We have all my husbands trophies, by the way. He loves having them around and after a long career, he deserves a few mementos of the glory days 🙂
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It is always refreshing to move things and discard or give away- we see the things we have kept with a new eye and rediscover them. Sometimes all it takes is that shuffling of things around to feel like a renovation and redecoration has taken place. Enjoy your new less cluttered home!
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I don’t suppose you need a few hundred books? How about some dolls? Just asking 🙂
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Simply reading about you clearing out stuff, gave ME a sense of relief. We should definitely do more of it. My problem is I do clearing out, but then allow new stuff to flow right into the space. And it has to stop. And you’ve given me a big incentive – I might just discover a unicorn 🙂
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My problem is finding homes for a lot of stuff … ESPECIALLY book and dolls which are the biggest two clutter factors. We’ve filled the shelves of three libraries. I’ve sold hundred of dolls and given away a couple of hundred more … and still have another 200 or so. The books are the most recalcitrant. We were both avid readers and the house has that look that bookish people houses have. EVERY place they fit, there’s a bookcase. And every flat surface has … dolls. Many dolls 🙂 But dumping the junk (there was some stuff that I looked at and said “why did I keep this? good grief” and it went directly to the trash. Old small appliances … you know, the ones that sort of work and you hate to just throw them away because they aren’t really dead? I sent to to the land fill. If they aren’t good enough for ME to use? They probably aren’t good enough for anyone else, either. I attacked the linen closet with vigor less than a year ago, yet somehow, it’s full again and I swear, I didn’t do it. I didn’t. It’ those fairies and pixies and brownies …
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Little devils those closet re-fillers!
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There comes a time in life, it seems to me, when you suddenly see things with other eyes and realise that you really cannot take it with you. I once had advice from someone to live as if you were going to move house once a month (perhaps even a week). I started about a year ago and today it is done. My eyes are everywhere for anything that begins to collect again in empty spaces. Everything has its place now – more or less.
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I keep trying, but there’s SO much. Collecting was the final nail in the coffin. And the books, OH the books. We gave away thousands of them, but there are still so many remaining. At least we aren’t acquiring anything new. Just seeking homes for the old 🙂
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I love how you share instead of finding the easy way: throwing it out or selling it. Fantastic!
We are about to move and that too is a good time for cleaning up 😉 Good luck with the rest of it!
Cheers,
Tieme
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I just wish more people wanted the stuff. People my age are not adding stuff, they are getting RID of it. And my friends are my age and older, so they are not much use. But some of them have kids and grandkids … maybe they still have space. I think this is how I got most of my stuff. My mother off-loaded her stuff on me when she was moving to smaller quarters. Sigh 🙂
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We’ll be adding the stuff I’ve brought from the old family home. Bit of a shrine to my family. It won’t be overdone, I promise.
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Haha, so the lesson for young folks might be not to collect too much over time? 😉
Good luck 🙂
Best,
Tieme
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Too much stuff becomes a real burden. Slows you down. Weighs you down. The more you have, the less mobile you are, the more stuck you remaiin. It’s certainly something to consider.
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I am currently moving to a new house (or about to), so a good moment to start cleaning up 😉
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You will be shocked at how much stuff there is. It’s always shocking how MUCH stuff we accumulate — and how fast we do it 🙂
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The results are lovely though. Love that pic of the doll. She’s lovely. And your plant, my beautiful pic.
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Thanks. I have always loved hanging plants in a kitchen window. Garry is complaining that it’s in his way. I told him to tough it out. Duck, baby. Duck!
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What fun to rediscover your treasures! And to open up some space in the house. It’s an awful job, but the end result is always very rewarding!
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it is fun, like getting a whole pile of gifts … all of which need cleaning. The two nights I’ve spent cleaning antique music boxes wasn’t nearly as much fun as I had hoped. They don’t make q-tips like they used to. Where are those wooden sticks when we really NEED them ? 🙂
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