Friday, March 18, 2011

junk is good

i enjoy seeing old stuff.
i need it in my life to anchor me to my age and memories.
as i progress down this path,
junk has a more meaningful spot in my world.

i am also a devoted magazine addict.
this is partially why i am in clutter hell.
my studio space is filled with boxes of mags that i seemingly cannot re-view.
the purpose of that daunting challenge is to see if any old articles or photos
still make my mouth water.
can my ole eyes soak up images afresh?
will i be able to make my
heart, mind and soul
expand if i look at stuff all over again?

last time i went through my mags, i challenged the many boxes containing
20 years of GOURMET.
i had so many misgivings about tossing that collection.
i knew it was the right thing to do.
yet, i had significant trouble bringing it all to the curb for recycling.
then the magazine suffered an unthinkable contemporary issue...
it went out of business.
to this day, several years later...
i still suffer when i think about it.
i have even reached the crazy point where i considered making beads from all the great photos
from that nice heavy weight glossy paperstock.
yeah, right. totally a loopy idea.

when we first moved to Providence, we had an empty house.
it felt like a blank canvas i was being taunted to fill.
then we added 3 kids to the 932 square foot palace.
so small and apparently smaller every day.
(seriously, i can NOT believe how painful it is to trip over my son's humongous shoes.
I thought those life threatening little pain in the neck LEGOs were going to do me in.
they HURT when you stepped on them barefoot.)
yet, as my heart says to wait 'til later to get those mags outta here.
my head knows better.
i think it is time to select that button that says:
"quality over quantity".

I see old things that are very cool everywhere.
i want them.
BAAAAD.
but there is no more room here.
i need a dumpster in the driveway.
i need to extend my policy...
when my husband tosses stuff out, in a big opaque black contractor's plastic trash bag...
i won't let myself look anymore.
it is a real challenge to stop myself.
it is what i need to do though.

flea market season is coming SOON!
i have a head filled with ideas already.
i need to purge.
or at least start to sew again.
curtains hung to drape in front of unsightly messes are seeming more sensible all the time.
making room for new things is also exciting.
i guess this is the tiny kernel of
spring cleaning coming into play.

that and the promise of my daughter coming home from college.
she is tiny, but uses up space.
i need to find some of my own, and make it usable in
productive and creative ways.
i have all the magazines that show me how i can do such a thing.
and there we are...
full circle.
again.
MAGAZINES.

wish me luck
on
a personal
quest
to de-clutter.
i will enjoy the company i am sure.
and everyone here will enjoy the increased oxygen flow.

xoxo.w.

1 comment:

  1. I loved this post. I too threw away all my Gourmet and Vegetarian Times magazines a few summers back. My reasoning was they were taking up several plastic tubes worth of space AND all the recipes are online. They really had to go too because all the pages were stuck together and I couldn't open them up to the recipes I liked anyway. So, I try not to think about that loss.

    I am always on a personal quest to de-clutter, but it never seems to happen. Please keep us updated and perhaps you can be my inspiration *smile*.

    ReplyDelete