Boxes and boxes and life lessons

I continued to open boxes and sort and put away and toss all weekend.  My version of taking a break was to work in my bedroom and go through my clothing to get rid of things I no longer wear or is damaged in some way, etc.  Not exactly the break I needed but it was different from opening boxes.  My boyfriend took me out for a ride on the motorcycle for a little while yesterday.  Of course all I could think about while we rode were those cursed boxes! 

I have decided to move everything into my garage that is probably going into the attic or out the door or needs a bigger sort once combined with it's like content boxes that are already in the garage.  There are two columns of boxes at least 5 feet tall waiting for my son to put out there.

Here is a bit of a history,,,,,

When I lost my husband I wasn't really forced to deal with all the stuff.  I pushed myself and donated a lot of things.  No where near enough but a good amount.  When the fire happened everything was taken out of the house and cleaned by someone else.  When it came time to bring it all back I was really forced to deal with things.  I did NOT want to cram it all back into the house.  I had a garage full and two storage units full that I could work in and bring back into the house only what I truly wanted.  I set a one month goal to get the smaller storage unit cleaned out.  I met that goal but also moved some of the items to the garage or the big storage unit.

I worked on the garage and got rid of a lot of big items.  I ultimately made enough room to empty the big storage unit onto my driveway.  That was another major sort that resulted in lots of items given away and a good amount put into the garage.  At that time a big stack of boxes were brought into the house for me to work on.  After this sort there was a months long break from working on this stuff.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  My boyfriend has moved in which resulted in me needing to make room for him.  He is squeezed in right now.  I asked him to just let me know if there is a certain area he wants me to work on and I will tackle it right away.  He's only asked for two areas and both were addressed.  He knew that I was going to grab boxes that I thought belonged in my sewing room and concentrate on those because it accounted for the majority of items that needed to be put away.  I made huge progress and even had the help of a neighbor to fold all the fabric.  I am being careful not to overstuff that room and know that I am reaching the end of the available space.

This whole process has been very frustrating and I ultimately agreed to put a large number of things from the garage into the attic so that I would have room to move around and I could continue to sort.  This resulted in over 2/3rds of the garage being emptied.  Now I find myself putting things back into the garage and feeling like this is a small step backwards.  I realize it isn't but can't help feel that way.

So there is a life lesson in here?  Are you ready? 

When my Mother passed away I took some clothing of hers, her jewelry and her sewing stash and patterns.  I was able to bring home the things I cared about the most in 2 13 gallon bags and a paper grocery sack.  There are two sewing machines that I will retrieve at a later date but that really isn't that much.  She has lots of nice, pretty things but when I was told by my father to get what I wanted because he was getting rid of everything that is what I took. 

This led me to talk to my kids about what is important to them in my belongings.  Apparently not much so my editing eye has really been opened and changed on what is important.  I let the kids know that just because it wasn't important to them didn't mean I was getting rid of it.  My daughter is ready to haul ALL of it away. 

Before Mom had passed I had already been through the contents  of many of my boxes and had chosen what was important to me.  Now I am going through these boxes again and some of the things I thought were important have lost their meaning to me.  I like many of these items but I just have so many.  I am really ready to let go of a lot more.  It has gotten easier to make these decisions.  I think that is the progress I should mark and be most proud of.

So this week I will still be sorting and culling and putting away but I am going to feel more relaxed about it.  I AM going to sew a little too.  Because that is important to me too.  No more talk of boxes unless I have quilty pics to share.  I promise!!

Quilty hugs!