So after being back home for 5 days with mom, who is admittedly a packrat, I see that our connection with stuff is partly emotional. I went through an old dresser and came across stuff that I know I've had for more than 20 years, but now I can't remember why the stuff was important to me. I remember that I used to have an emotional connection to it (which explains the 20 years); I just don't remember the connection anymore. So it was easy to toss. Letters from my dad, however, I couldn't quite part with.
Emotions don't explain all the addiction to stuff. In my mom's case, a lot of her stuff is here because there's so much stuff already here. It's too big a job to get rid of any of it. So it stays. And it grows. Today alone she received in the mail 6 pages of address labels. She already has about 600. Yet she keeps the new ones. Why? I don't know.
I found a tote bag full of tote bags. And then I found another tote bag full of tote bags. In all, there are about 25 tote bags. Does anyone need that many tote bags?
She has about 15 2008 calendars. Also complimentary of the people who send her address labels. Why can't we recycle those? "I like the pictures," she says. But she doesn't look at them.
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Don't part with letters. I still have my mom's, haven't really been able to deal much with them yet. She's been gone four years now.
Calendars are good for collage work - take the pictures you like and use them to make visual collages. Or take all the calendars and take the "best" pictures and make one new calendar out of them - it's fun and lets you feel creative.
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