What to Save, What to Toss...

It's begun in full earnest. Stuff we've kept for thirty three years, or in some cases, fifty eight years. It has to go - we can't keep it all!

But we can have a blast going through it, remembering one last time. Pillows stuffed with the pet hair of a beloved pet, trophies, ribbons and award certificates. Funny photos, old love notes and such.

It's proving to be a really fabulous way to spend the evening, watching TV out of one eye, and skipping through years of memories with the other.

I cut Leslie's 'keepsakes', four copy paper sized boxes, down to two after the sorting was done. Since they're going to her basement, she'll be glad to know that. Sarah has been married long enough, and come home enough times, that she has one measley box left. And a wedding gown. Dan still has six, a football helmet, baseball bat, and very tall karate trophy so his 'treasures' may be a bit more of a challenge. The rule was we'd keep them til they bought their first house, so Dan's will be going to attic storage at the lake. Good motivation for me to downsize his pile. It sure was sweet, for just a moment, to see his old vest and sheriff's badge and cap gun. That son of mine needs to produce a boy to enjoy all his great, old toys. I've got dinosaur cookie cutters, for pete's sake!

This photo was actually taken three years ago, when pregnant Leslie was at our house. She and her Dad had such fun, sitting and reading old love notes, or notes between our kids. "Sarah is bein' mean. So is Leslie. I'm up here in my room. They're all dumb. Dad and Mom are being mean too."

We're keeping this toothbrush - it has quite the story. When Lindy (our dearly deceased golden retriever whose remains we're still hunting under the squirrel feeder) was young, Leslie would apparently heave her up onto the bathroom counter and brush her teeth. One day I was up in the bathroom, and grabbed my toothbrush to brush my teeth. Leslie yelled at me, "stop, don't use Lindy's brush." ..... apparently we'd been sharing for months. We still laugh over it, and nobody can bear to throw out the shared toothbrush. I just ran across it a night or two ago, and laughed again. It's funnier now than it was when I first realized what was going on.

I found storage ziplocs that are 2 1/2 gallons, and am finding they are just perfect for this sorting process. The kids' 'treasures' will go into a large ziploc (or two, or three...) and I'll be putting together one for each, that will hold all the stuff for their scrapbooks, yet to be assembled. One scrapbook that holds birth through high school graduation. It'll have to wait til we're at the lake and Don is out catching whoppers, but that sounds like a lovely way to pass hot summer days, inside scrapbooking.

By the way, that old adage, 'human mouths have more germs than a dog's'.... don't you even be believing that!