Anyone moving home or doing a house clearance will feel our pain.We have spent the last month going through years and years of ‘stuff’ that my Mum and Dad had collected and stored. When my Dad died, we cleared some of it, but not everything. We held on to things that had sentimental value (at the time) and we moved it from Grimsby to Bournemouth 5 years ago.
Some of this was put in my loft as my Mum didn’t have enough space as she moved from a 4 bedroom detached house to a 2 bedroom park home, so no chance. This has stayed in my loft, not touched, for 5 years and now was the time to sort through these ‘gifts’.
My Sister came over to help me categorise and sort things out, and I’m so grateful she was there as I would have stopped after about an hour. We cleared the dining room and got the things down from the loft and piled it all up, ready to sort out. There were newspapers older than me, clippings and scrap books depicting special events, ornaments that hadn’t seen the light of day for decades and, of course pictures, birthday / anniversary cards, special things from the grandkids that had been saved and, of course, the obligatory, personal diaries. It was a tough day and it took all day!
We put things into 1 of 5 categories: Keep, give away, sell, charity or throw. You will know, that if you have ever experienced doing something similar, you need to adopt a brutal mindset. There were so many things that had some emotional attachment, but were useless, and would stay in my loft another 20 years for my kids to have to throw them away! Ornaments that looked lovely so we ‘googled’ things to see if they were going to pay our mortgages off, but alas, no!
My Dad was in the RAF and played sport so there were tankards, medals, trophies, more clippings and records of achievements to sort out. I’ be asking myself “How can you throw something out with his name engraved on it?” Tough stuff to do…
My Mum had certificates of her achievements. I never realised how accomplished she was and how many qualifications she had, but do I keep them??
The message for me was loud and clear “Get rid of your ‘stuff’ as you go along. Put it into 1 of 5 categories and leave a clean house for your kids! Store minimal things, save some sentimental stuff and make sure you label everything. If you save it because you think it might grow in value, leave a note saying – Don’t throw this away until you’ve ‘Googled it’ (or whatever will be around then).
I came across a frame with a sandpaper background (looked and felt like it) with a tin can stuck to it that had bullet holes all over it and was squashed. No title, no description and no clue about the meaning – thank you Banardos for taking that from me, someone might get some joy out of it!
The good thing was, that when I was going to keep something that was clearly of no use to me and for all the wrong, guilty, reasons, my Sister (Trudi) said “No, throw it” or “Give that to charity” and she really helped me get through this difficult task, as I did with her.
You are never, never, on your own. There are always people willing to help and support you in tough times. Speak out, reach out and always ask for help if you need it, it makes life a bit easier!
I do actually like my new collection of ‘all things brass’ though! ????❤️