In the 80s, the quote going around was “He who dies with the most toys wins.” It was a time of new gadgets and toys along with the idea that these things were “necessary”.
And let’s face it–most of us love our game consoles, computers, and phones. They bring us together and give us a way to connect with the outside world in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before.
The lockdowns brought a lot of shopping therapy as well. The usual ways of enjoying ourselves were gone or severely limited.
We weren’t immune to the idea of wanting the toys and the stuff. After losing all of our parents, there’s even more stuff. On top of our own things, we also had the remnants of their lives.
We don’t want to live in a spartan house with a bare floor and no TV or photos or memories. We also don’t want to live in a house where we are constantly tripping over stuff and cleaning because it takes 3 times as long.
I’d love to say that it’s been easy the last couple of years to let things go. I CAN say it is getting easier. We are choosing the truly treasured items and letting the others go. We keep what we use and stop stuffing things into closets and the garage.
My mom always used an antique platter for meatloaf or roasts. It was her grandmother’s and she had memories of it being used. My great-aunt had a fit when she came for a visit and saw her using it. It’s an antique and needs to be put in a cabinet and preserved. And my mom?
What good is a platter if it’s never used?
I try to remember that as we find the “special” things. I keep what we love and we use them. We enjoy the memories. And if it breaks? The memory is still here.
What aren’t we minimizing in our life? Memories. We are doing more as we have less to take care of and taking lots of pictures. We are passing along items and letting others enjoy the memories of their favorite things. Mostly, we are collecting moments of love.
Collect
Paulo Coelho
moments,
not
things.
I so get this. Just last night, T and I had a talk about the things we gave to charity. My mom’s stuff. Stuff that had been there throughout my childhood. But I had no use for the items, so made pictures of them and put them on the pile for charity. Some things we also threw away, because it was old and not nice anymore and had more value for my mom than for us. What we will always have, are our memories, and for some of those memories, we have visuals too. The house feels a lot better since we have cleaned out so much.
~ Marie xox
We’ve taken a lot of pictures of things before we got rid of them as well. It allows us to enjoy seeing the item without storing it. Our house feels so much better too.
Xox