SOL #28: Cleaning out the Storage Barn

This March writing challenge is organized by Two Writing Teachers

I can't believe this month of writing and reading is nearly over.  The next big blog-related event I'm looking forward to is Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon in late April  Join the fun!

So, there's a lot of background that I don't want to get into right now, but yesterday we spent several hours going through boxes and bins that have been in storage for about eight years.  Some of the boxes had severe water damage, others had severe varmint damage, and one particularly exciting box featured two mice scurrying away in panic as we leapt back in panic after lifting the lid on their home.

But it also included some very satisfying finds, such as my Christmas mugs, a poster I had literally been trying to find online the day before, my two Madame Alexander dolls (which my daughter was THRILLED to receive), and The Winemaker's extensive shell-and-rock collection, which both kids were super excited about.

It was obvious that when we boxed all this up, we anticipated un-boxing it a few months later.  There were stored items that we brought back home during that first year, but at this point, it seems that we could probably throw away every single thing, since we've lived this long without it.  I wish I'd sold all the books, 98% of which are now ruined. Still, we found a good amount of things we want to hang onto or that are in good enough shape to donate.

It's a bit of a problem that we are sentimental about different things, but it also helps us to be patient with each other.  I have a tendency to just want to jettison everything (besides those items I'm sentimental about, of course), while my husband wants to check all the way to the bottom of each box, and wonders if we could use or sell all sorts of things.  His caution kept me from a few rash decisions, and my "it's a chance to lighten our load!" philosophy convinced him that nobody really is going to want textbooks from the early 1990s.  But I kept those mugs, the un-ruined journals, the charm bracelet, and he kept the shells, the Russian dictionaries, and the parts from his friend's motorcycle.