If you choose to get rid of them, you must burn them. Throw yourself a party. Read some of your favorite entries. Then, toss them in the fire and don’t look back.
If you choose to keep them, put them on a shelf in a low-traffic area of your home and read them when the mood strikes. Don’t keep them in an inaccessible box like in a museum. Choosing to keep an object means that you’re choosing to have the object be a part of your life.
It got me thinking about things that I’ve saved that are not a part of my life. My current one, that is. In my attic there’s a lamp with custom shades that I adore but must be re-wired, some old oak dining chairs that need repair, scraps from my children’s baby clothes that I hope to make into a quilt someday (even though I don’t know how to quilt). And this.
A box of old dollhouse furniture.We did have a dollhouse at one time, but my daughter slowly lost interest and the glue that held the wallpaper on slowly lost it's stick. We got rid of it, but kept the furniture, thinking that we’d get another one someday. What, I wonder, is the likelihood of that happening? About nil. Reading the Unclutter post made me realize that I need to purge or take action. (Back when I started this blog and put up my first post, I thought decluttering was going to be a major theme of my blog. Hahahahahahahaaaa! Do you believe that? So far only 2 tags!)
Here’s another heirloom from Grandma Lucy. I believe her name is Charlotte, and she is probably the most valuable doll I own.
The doll became mine when my great-grandmother Beatty (Lucy’s mother) died when I was about 8, and there was another doll with lighter hair that went to my cousin. Charlotte and the other doll never got passed on to us, though. Not for another 30 years when Grandma Lucy died. They stayed in the glass case in her living room. Every once in awhile I’d ask when the doll was going to truly be mine. “Soon,” she’d reply. “When you’re a little older.” Truth was, she loved those dolls and as long as she was enjoying them on display in her house every day, I saw no reason to change that.
And now, a bit of the ubiquitous Chaplin collection: the weird and somewhat disturbing looking
Chaplin Duck.
Bet you wish I'd kept that one hidden.
What about you? Do you have some tchotchke socked away that needs to see the light of day? We're up to letter E - why not join Pam-J and God Bless Ya'll Real Good and I on the 15th for the next round?
8 comments:
Give up my clutter? NEVER!!
And yes...the Charlie Chaplin duck will probably give me nightmares. Definitely over-share...
I have a small doll collection, one my grandmother made about 40 years ago, one my mother brought back from Poland, and others bought when we've been to special places. They were all in a box for years, until my husband came home one day with a small curio cabinet, and they've very happily been on display since then. I, too, love seeing them looking out every day.
I'm no help! I would use the doll house furniture in a mini table top garden. Of course I would probably think about it and never do it. I still have some old cassette tapes but not the player.
You could send me the dollhouse furniture and I would add it to my own box of the stuff. I do still have the dollhouse, and would like to fix it up someday. For whom, I have no idea. But I can't bear to get rid of it.
Oh lordy, clutter does not even begin to cover it here. I prefer the term "archivist" over "pack rat," but that might imply some methodology. Don't burn the dollhouse furniture, it's too cool! :)
Make the quilt! It's easy and you'll be so happy you made it. My advice is to start small and simple. If you quilt by hand, which is what I do, you can pick it up each night, sew for 15-20 minutes, and in no time at all you'll be done. Let me know if you want a quilting coach!
What a great entry! I read the Unclutterer, too. In fact, I think I discovered it via Nyack Backyard!
I love the doll, which you eventually inherited. She's beautiful and definitely a keeper, for generations more. The dollhouse furniture, I suspect, not so much.
You're right . . . that Chaplin duck is just too weird. It reminds me of a character in the movie, Freaks, who had no arms or legs, and wriggled along on his belly.
I enjoy your blog!
I too have the box of dollhouse furniture with every intention of getting another dollhouse (perhaps we had the same kit - it all fell apart after a few years in storage).
I think I need to declutter the visible junk before I start delving into the hidden boxes.
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