I am a sentimental person who has been known to keep something that was broken because a special person had given it to me. While I realize that makes no sense to anyone else, it made sense to me. I wish I could be more like people who get rid of something and have no second thoughts.
A few years ago, I decided to really clean out our attic. Part of this urge was brought on by the fact that after cleaning out my parents house with my 2 siblings, Eric and I had to tackle his parents home a year later. Pulling down the attic stairs, I took a deep breath and started going through boxes. I threw away cards and letters from over 40 years ago. I got rid of my prom dress from my Jr. year of high school. I shredded tax papers from the year we got married-1979. (I hope we don't get audited.) T-shirts from youth sports teams were given away. We discarded Christmas decorations from our early years of marriage. I gave away lots of new items that we had bought to make gift baskets for charity auctions. The 2 bathing suit cover ups that I received as high school graduation gifts were put in a donation pile. Gifts that we had given my parents were sold in a consignment shop. I reluctantly carried my dad's old tube case (VERY large satchel) down the stairs to the garbage after holding onto it for over 20 years. Souvenirs from our vacations were put in the box, taken out and put back in. Lastly, I sent an old graduation announcement to the family of a deceased classmate he had given me in 1977.
But the part of the attic that I could not attempt was from Andrew and Paul's childhood days. Some of the items were always intended to be handed down; Cabbage Patch dolls (yes they both had one), rocking chairs, toy chests and tricycles. Then as the 4 grandchildren started having birthdays, we decided to regift other things. The 'Farmer Says' from Christmas 1983 was wrapped up in March. The 31 year old Fisher Price Cottage Family was a birthday gift in May. A small personalized coat rack was given for a birthday in 1984 and then again in 2014. I have enjoyed seeing my grandchildren in some of the clothes that their daddies wore years ago. The clothes were given at recent baby showers, along with pictures of their daddies in the same outfit.
With apologies to our sons and daughters-in-law, you will have to finish the attic someday. Not soon, I hope. But the sentimentality is hard to get past. We kept everything and we didn't mean to.
