Living Lightly

As I move to our front hall I find stashes of gloves and winter hats. I also counted seven umbrellas (plus one we keep in the car). Even allowing for visitors who may need an emergency umbrella, gloves, or hat, we don’t really need all of these. How many people are really going to visit us in January, gloveless and hatless? Would seven people without umbrellas really descend on us in one fell swoop? Out! Out!

Storage of the stuff I’m giving away is starting to become a problem. Since it’s not efficient for me to daily take each day’s give-aways to Goodwill or St. Vincent DePaul, I’m collecting all the stuff in a corner. After Easter I plan to put an ad in Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org for the bigger items and take the rest to a charity. Meanwhile our home looks more cluttered rather than less because we also have all the dining room furniture stored in the living room till the ceiling gets fixed. Perhaps today, I’m letting go of the peace of mind that an uncluttered environment brings and delaying that gratification.

How small should a piece of wrapping paper be to be useless? How much newsprint of different sizes does one need for banners and children’s art? Since I also store candles in the same area as the wrapping paper, I tackled them both together. I had more luck throwing away wrinkled newsprint than still usable candles. (You never know when the electricity is going to go out.) Wait, the electricity actually was out in this room since we’re still waiting for the drywall person to finish the ceiling which had the only light. It was too dark to sort through the candles. I just put all the paper that was going to recycling in the middle of the floor and took a photo – luckily the camera has a flash.

Today’s photo doesn’t look like much but I had recently cleaned out the linen closet in our main bathroom so there wasn’t much left to get rid of. I did, however, find an old electric blanket that I never use because I’m not sure I feel safe having something electric on me overnight. I also found a “rag bag” – beyond the “rag crate” in the closet. Is it possible to have too many rags? I have a rag container for each floor of our home. When there’s no more room in these containers, that’s it! I’m just going to bite the bullet and throw them out. So there! I also was ruthless with throwing away all the barrettes and hair ties I’ve collected. I’m really never going to have long hair again.

While pruning and purging the bedroom I found a number of miscellaneous things that don’t really fit any category, but need to go to a home that can use them, not just store them. I found a box of mementos from the US/Soviet Peace Camp our family did before the iron curtain fell. (I’m passing on the plastic toys.) I found electric curlers (I’m never going back to a hair style that requires them.) I found some gag gifts. (Most of my peers passed 50 awhile ago.) But alas, I then found several items that made me wince. These were high quality skirts and a suit that for some reason I had stored in Jim’s side of the closet. Hmmm. Grey isn’t my color. Let it go to someone who is a “winter.”

I’ve been out of town so I figured Halloween costumes would provide some quick and easy choices today. I probably should have chosen more, but you never know when you might need a gag costume. What you see are things that will be thrown away – the home-made pterodactyl dinosaur collar, the tie-died shirt with holes in it, the falling apart crazy hats… are not in good enough condition to give away. Fortunately I had already taken the photo when I rummaged deeper into the closet and found the hand sewn clown, lion, and witch costumes. How did I ever have time to make those?

Life is starting to interfere with my well organized plan of giving things away. Our teenage friend had a C-section a week ago which meant being with her during labor and numerous trips to bring her husband back and forth to the hospital while also trying to help him get a job. Meanwhile, my parents, who live about six hours away, are facing the health challenges normal to people in their 80’s and 90’s. I’m planning a “support the rents” trip this month. Meanwhile, our dining room ceiling is being repaired which means chaos in that part of the house. I ponder these things and remember that I’m blessed to have a car to transport people in, blessed to have my parents still alive, blessed to have a house and the money to repair a ceiling, but I’ve had to cancel meetings and rearrange my life. It seems frivolous when compared to the daily needs of those who don’t have these “luxuries.” Perhaps this “dying to self” is more of what Lent is about than giving things away, but still…
PS: If you can allow me one complaint, I can tell you that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not make it easy to get a visa. Now, that’s something to really worry about!