From The Past: December 20, 2003

We watched the movie Insomnia this afternoon. It’s about a detective (Al Pacino) trying to solve a murder mystery. All in all, it was pretty good.

Jennifer and Harold bought our hutch from us so Harold and dad came over and picked it up today. Honestly, we were just using it for storage anyway. The dishes that it displayed were never used so I don’t feel bad about it.

The Learning Channel has a show called Clean Sweep. The Style Network has Clean House and BBC America has The Life Laundry. All of these shows are designed to show us how much clutter we accumulate in our lives. They take two or three rooms (depending on the show) and move everything out of them onto the lawn. There are three piles: The Keep pile, the Sell pile, and the Trash pile. They go through item by item and decide which pile they want that item to go in. After all the junk is sorted, an expert comes in and helps them decrease the useless items down even further. The next day they have a yard sale. Everything that isn’t bought gets sent to charity. They redecorate the rooms and organize everything. It always looks great and a huge burden is lifted from the homeowner’s shoulders.

Sometimes, the only reason we are keeping certain items is because someone special gave it to us. But, we have our memories of the person who gave it to us, so we don’t have to hang onto the item itself.  I love my children and I do save some of their work, but I don’t have to keep everything they do. The same thing goes for gifts. Just because someone gives it to you doesn’t mean you have to keep it. That’s why I decided to sell the hutch. It wasn’t our style and we kept it for seven years. I have learned that instead of keeping unwanted, unused stuff, I can take a picture of it. Pictures takes up much less space.