Junk

10/11/2014

Junk - everybody's got some - and some people have lots.  I am somewhere in the middle.  I have my two junk drawers in the kitchen, but would absolutely be unable to tell you with certainty what's inside.  Once something goes into either of those drawers, they are engulfed in some kind of mysterious dark hole.  Oh because every now and then I think I should be a better housekeeper (hate that word), I pull out the contents and spread them across the counter.  Ugh.  There are bits and pieces of paper, old lenses which I can't throw out, who knows I might need them sometime.  

When we lived in Riverside, Jeff and I lived in a pretty small home, 1,500 feet or so.  We had small bedrooms and bathrooms and very little closet space.  But we lived there from 1975 until 1986 just fine.  

Then we moved to Maryland.  Back here, one level homes are rare because land is so valuable. Two story homes are the "norm".  When we were house looking, we fell in love with the model of the house that we ultimately bought.  Twenty-eight years ago, stairs wasn't a problem for either Jeff or I.  Today - they are a big problem.  Creaky knees and a worn out hip make the once beautiful stairs, now more of a torture.  I try to come down in the morning and go up at bedtime.  And I am no longer able to go up or down stairs without holding the railing.  Curses it's tough being old.

When we moved in, all the boys had their own bedrooms and shared a bathroom.  And as the years passed by, too quickly, the boys left homes.  We turned one empty bedroom into an office for Jeff where he can keep his papers and his desk as messy as he likes.  Unlike me, he does not suffer from OCD.  We took one spare bedroom and put a bed in there, but are only "guest" has been Benjamin.

The last spare bedroom is our junk room.  We have commercial shelving that is filled with binders and file boxes of paperwork from our now defunct battery business.  There is a filing cabinet filled with a folder for each car that we own or owned (don't ask me about that), insurance policies, our Wills, passports, paid bills and anything else that we might need SOME DAY! 

I have several dressers in the junk room, filled with my clothes and in full disclosure these dressers were originally purchased for Benjamin's clothes. There is a Britax car seat that was a spare as we originally bought car seats for both of our cars, neighbor Kim as well as Andy.  Benjamin doesn't come to see us often now, so I have taken a lot of his toys and put them in cloth tubs and when he visits, I drag the tubs downstairs.  

The doors to the "guest room" and the "junk" bedroom are always closed.  But, I have an old friend coming to visit us next week and she's staying the night.  Today, I will go into those rooms and put away stuff - and I have a lot of it.  I'm not a pack rat like you see on television where people only have small aisles that they can walk in.  I'm a sentimental pack rat and my hope chest is full to the brim.  To add new things, cards, pictures from Benjamin  or anything else that has meaning, I have to cram them inside.  The lid still closes but I know the day is coming where the chest will be full - really full.  

I don't know why I feel sentimental over so many things, I just do.  In one of my old curio type of chest in the living room, sit on the bottom shelf a pair of yellow and white flannel baby booties.  They were mine.  I have stuffed the toes with tissue paper but when I think about getting rid of something, the booties are never considered.  Nor is the wooden merry-go-round that has little horses that go round and round.  Dad bought me that merry-go-round when we were in England.  So if I do the math (and I'm terrible at that), and assume we went to England probably in 1952, that makes this toy 62 years old.  

I know that if we ever move to a smaller home, then I would have to left go of some of my treasures, and when that day comes, it will be painful.  

P