Wednesday May 28, 2008 
Wednesday May 28, 2008 So I've been thinking about stuff. Stuff in my mother-in-law's house, stuff at our cabin, stuff in our closet at home.
What got me going on this is my mother-in-law's planned move to a retirement home, and cleaning out of her big house in Butte, Montana. When we stopped by on our way up to our cabin near Glacier, we were asked what we would like to have. My husband, who despises stuff of almost any description, hastily said, "Nothing." All I really wanted was an old photo of a vintage 1930's car making its way over the mountainous, curvy road of the Skalkaho pass. (This fifty-mile road that runs between Anaconda and Hamilton is one of the prettiest drives in Montana, and I've always loved that photograph.) I walked away with that prize, but said no thanks to the china, the linen, the stereo, the ice cream maker, the big coffee urn, the... Scott could hardly believe his luck - he was sure the truck would be filled with...stuff.
Which brings me to the next project that concerns stuff. After 20 years, we're finally getting our master bedroom redone. Part of the project is having California Closets come and figure out how to make our cavernous but rather useless closet, which is built into the eaves of the house, functional. Which is a fine idea (well, it was my idea, after all) but requires us to go through the space and clean it out. That closet has had stuff tossed in it since 1985, and aside from a few half-hearted efforts to clean it out, has never been emptied. I'm a little terrified of what we shall find.
And our cabin? Our cabin has the best-equipped kitchen of any summer place that I've seen (OK, except for the showplaces that are built to make sure everyone knows how much money you have)... it came together from our two families cleaning out our kitchens, and we hauled tons of stuff up there. We have service for 12, wine glasses for 36, more pots, pans and casserole dishes than you can shake a stick at. And if you go into the "bunkhouse" which is adjacent to the main house, you'll find shelves filled with more pots, more pans, a breadmaker (boy was that optimistic), more silverware, more, yes, more stuff. This weekend I told Jane that we should really go out there and clean the place out and she responded with a very reasonable answer: "Why? It's not hurting anyone, it's in a building we rarely go into." So there it shall stay.
As usual, we drove up to Montana from Los Angeles (Yeah, yeah, I know. What are we, crazy? Did we ever hear of airplanes? Doesn't it take forever?) and listened to books on CD to pass the time. The choice for this trip is the last book in the Harry Potter series, which has the advantage of being long, light and reasonably entertaining. As we drove from the lake to Utah yesterday, we listened to a section of the book where Harry and friends are stealing magical goods - and find out a little too late that the treasures are protected by a spell in which the objects, once touched, become burning hot and multiply by the hundreds into worthless replicas. So our heroes find themselves almost buried by useless...stuff.
Do I know the feeling or what? Recycle it. Toss it. Give it to someone who needs it. Give it to someone who loves it. But please, get it out of my house!
Posted by terrymckenzie ( May 28 2008, 08:15:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback URL: http://blogs.sun.com/tmac/entry/stuff
Post a Comment:
here's a good website about stuff and how to declutter; http://unclutterer.com/
Posted by G. on May 30, 2008 at 04:49 AM PDT #