Are you a materialistic person? I am not for sure. Wait let me google what the opposite is! Yes I am an idealist or a non materialistic person. I own things, but they surely don't own me! I may sound weird, but I don't have a single possession that means so much to me. What means the world to me has a heart.
So I was influenced in writing this blog post after my mum phoned me. She told me to go to her house to see if I wanted anything from the small room there is in the garage. My reply was NO! Mum has a room in the garage and we have been putting things in it for years. So there are our school books and copybooks, the crafts we did at school, drawings, diaries, old games and video games which don't work. Some toys we had, and handbags I played with.
This got me thinking, why do we keep the kids' stuff when we know that one day they will leave the house and they wouldn't want them. All the crafts my kids do at school, are put in a big bag and when it's full, I put it in a box in the garage. There are also paintings and drawings Jaimee does at home. What will happen to them once the kids leave the house? I guess I will do like mum, throw everything away. In fact I was thinking of choosing 5 things each kid did, the most beautiful ones, and framing them. At least we will enjoy them now. The birthday cards are also thrown away. I keep the ones of birth, 1st year and 2nd year and then no more. Again, will my kids want these when they leave the house? The day Jaimee finishes school is the day I throw away the copybooks and textbooks.
My daughter calls me 'Mrs. Throw It Away'! It's true that I have a bad habit of throwing stuff away and then after a week I realise I could have used it. But other things I don't regret throwing away. And that is most of the times.
Apart from the crafts and drawings the kids do, I don't really have a lot more, coz I got rid of everything I don't use. In the sitting room I had wedding souvenirs, videos, books I knew we were never gonna read, encyclopedia, all gone! In the kitchen cupboard I had loads of things to make cake decorations, shape cutters, the orange juicer, a Kenwood mixer, cans of things I could have used for storage, all for nothing. And how many paper bags do we have? About three months ago I threw them all away, now the cupboard can't close again, it is so full.
We have this unit which had loads of items, that I realised we didn't need. It had old mobile phones, 3d glasses, old sunglasses, key chains and souvenirs people brought us from abroad, old specs, my history notes, newspaper cuttings, instruction manuals, which aren't really needed since you find everything on the internet nowadays. So I threw everything away.
Kids' clothes and shoes that don't fit are out very quickly. That's why my kids never inherited anything from each other. Not just the clothes but the walker, baby gym, steriliser, baby bag, bath, bath seat, breast pump, bottles, food containers and lots more. We didn't know we would want another child after Jaimee, and we didn't expect a new arrival after Sam. Aimee is 6 and a half months. All her clothes up to 6 months have been put away. And the old uniforms and carnival costumes as well. My maternity clothes are put away the day after I get home from the hospital!
With regards to my clothes, what I don't wear in a season, it means I don't need it. This summer I have to buy everything coz the summers before I was always in different sizes and shapes! 2015 I was pregnant with Sam, 2016 I was still fat after Sam, 2017 I was happy for a year but a bit bigger than now, 2018 I was pregnant again. So now this year I will enjoy buying new clothes.
So how do I decide what stays and what is discarded? I ask this question, 'If the house burns down, will I miss it?' Ok I sounded a bit too non materialistic there. Let me be honest, there is one thing at heart...... the photo albums! I love photos. Not on the computer but real printed ones. When Jaimee was 3 months she had 2000 photos, Sam had 1000 and Aimee had 500. But still quite a lot, right?
By not keeping useless objects, I have more space for the articles I still use. Which one day they too will become Junk.