I never thought we would be able to fill this house up, but in just two-and-a-half years we have done just that. Even though I am far from a neat freak, too much clutter does make me anxious so I have been tidying up around here before I go back to work next week. It is amazing how much stuff three people can accumulate. I am going to go ahead and call my son out right here: he is a hoarder. He got it honestly and I guess I ought to call out Grandpa Major, too. I can still hear Grandma Margaret griping about Major taking things out of the garbage and stashing them in his workshop. You never know when you might need an aluminum pie plate or thirty. Sam is the same way about stuffed animals. If he ever called it a buddy, it has a permanent place in our house.
My daughter and I were discussing our ancestral hoarders yesterday and I mentioned that it is now hurricane season here and even though we are an hour inland, we could theoretically be ordered to evacuate with a half-day's notice. If that were to happen and we have only our little CR-V to pack in, what would she take? Aside from a pile of clothes and toiletries, what would we scramble to save? Sam would blow a fuse and try to get all of his stuff in as many bags as possible, but I have mentally gone through this a few times. I am a planner, you know.
Sara would be frantically trying to compact her electronics, books, hair accessories and those Toms she adores into a very small amount of space, but I would focus on the irreplaceable things. After loading some clothes and personal items, I'd go for the lock-box with all our important documents, my laptop computer, my genealogy stuff and my childhood Bible. Then I'd load up the big box of photos and photo CDs under my bed and grab as many of the framed ones as I could. My mom had her wallet stolen many years ago and she was beside herself about the loss of the photos in it that could not be replaced more than she was about her money or identification. More recently, water damage claimed a huge box of photos and negatives from my childhood and my mom can barely discuss it even now. I am so glad that I live in an age when photos are stored electronically and easily recovered even when computers crash. I have always loved pictures, but doing my ancestry research has made me appreciate them even more.
Since my mother has retired, she has begun to sort and organize her "treasures" and I have been fortunate to gain some nice pieces of furniture as well as some nifty old kitchen items that belonged to my aunt Doll . I'd hate to lose any of it, but it didn't make the short list of what I'd be inclined to save if the Gulf decided to slosh inland. If time and space allowed, I might get some favorite novels and some of my preserves, but the rest is going down with the ship. In the end it is all just stuff we can't take with us, but there are a few things I'd like to pass down.
We come into this world with nothing and go out the same way. In between we are privileged to possess a few things but they are just that. Things. My mother and her sister hardly speak anymore and it all started over a bunch of stuff. Material stuff. Stuff that neither has use for, much less storage space, and probably couldn't put their hands on if their lives depended on it. I don't plan on being that way. I'll take care of the things I have while I have them, but Sam and Sara can do what they will with them when my time comes. And while I appreciate beautiful, expensive luxury items, I am not wasting time or energy pining over them or killing myself trying to buy them.
Today's media and advertisers push onto us the notion that we should want to have certain things to make us appear to be successful and beautiful and eternally young and if we don't want those things there is something wrong with us. Have a chat with a teenager and that will come out almost immediately...and they don't even notice. But as I have gotten older and have lived out here in the country with no cable or satellite television, I have come to appreciate that less is more. I used to take no less than three bags with me for a weekend trip. This last time I had one and my purse. My children, however, have many years and many shopping bags and Spring Cleanings before they will get to this place. I should probably invest in Rubbermaid and Zip-loc because they're going to be storing stuff for a long time!
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