My bedroom has never had a coat of paint on it since the day this house was built 21 years ago. It still has the primer. My room has never been at the top of the list for care and attention. The kids and the rest of the house all took precedence and since I’m married to a pack rat, the master bedroom quickly became a storage area with a bed.
When a neighbor that I had been helping out passed away, I became the executor of her estate and had to clean out her house. Having no living immediate family and having been an avid preservationist of family history and collector of object d’art, I had a rough time figuring out how to best distribute her life. It was not easy. Shortly after I had finished clearing out and selling her house, my father became ill and passed away and 11 months later, my mother joined him, leaving my childhood home in need of clearing. Again, I had to figure out a way to part with someone lifetime of belongings. At that point, I determined that I did not want my children to have MOUNDS of things to go through. It is an overwhelming task. Besides, who really needs half the stuff they have in storage anyway? So for the past year I have been tackling each room in my house and doing some major editing of my stuff. A very wise person once said to me that we never really own anything, we just take care of it for a while.
The tricky part comes in when I’m willing to part with things that seem extraneous to me, but not to the pack rat I married. He loves to keep everything. In his defense, he seems to be truly working towards reducing. He gave our son a pair of steins yesterday. I know that was difficult for him. He’s been collecting aviation items for YEARS and now he’s come to the realization that his collection is really just Jr.’s safety deposit box for what will one day become Jr’s collection! But I digress…
I had been living without living room furniture for a year when I finally bought a sofa and chair and moved the TV back into the living room. True the walls still have sample paints on them, but the general consensus is that it is much more comfortable. It will be the last room in the house to be completed, but since there is so much stuff here, it’s like a gigantic puzzle piece to work in any one room at a time and to determine the logistics of where everything will go until that room is complete!
For the past week, I’ve been sorting and sifting in my room and I’m pleased to announce that I have finally cleared off the dresser, and unearthed a corner of the room from the massive amount of books we had collected. My ultimate goal is to rid my self of the old heavy furniture and paint the room. I’m not sure what kind of items I’ll put back in my room, but I know it won’t be nearly as heavy as what I had. I hate clutter and disorganization and would love to create a room where I can feel relaxed and serene.
Snippets and Tidbits 