I have to admit it, in the past month I've become addicted to craigslist. For those of you living under a rock, it's a local Ebay of sorts. You post a description of your stuff, some pictures and a price and random people show up and cart your junk away. And they PAY you for it!! Brilliant!
I've sold all of the boys clothes I was keeping for boy #3, who turned out to be girl #1. I've sold Halloween costumes that I've kept in a box since '04. I've sold more bedding this week than Pottery Barn.
There is a tremendous amount of relief that comes with letting go. Seeing my boys' clothes carried out my front door fills me with sense of remembering their little bodies in those clothes--the outfit that Pryor was wearing the first time he climbed the slide by himself, the shirt that Will was wearing when he discovered chocolate ice cream (and his sweet tooth). And then the moment is over and I'm back to helping with homework and getting kids ready for soccer practice. Life goes on. Moving out old memory makers to find room for new ones.
My mom cleaned out her basement a few years back and routinely started flooding my basement with things she found in hers: my show choir costume from my freshman year of high school, my prom dresses, my Madame Alexander dolls. While each item holds a memory dear to me, I wasn't at all interested in keeping the physical reminder (but don't worry mom, I haven't sold any of that on craigslist...yet). I have a feeling in a couple of years that items that were so precious to my mom that they were taking up prime real estate in my parents' basement for 20 years will be dress-up costumes torn to shreds by my daughter. And that's okay. Old memory makers finding uses for new ones.
Craig, I don't know who you are, and we will never meet, but I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to focus on the memory, not the object and provide me with the reminder that it's okay to let things go...
Although, at the rate I am going--my husband and kids are getting nervous that they're next!
A moment of perfection in the chaos.
Craig is awesome! I convinced my mom to let me hang up all the old show choir and prom and cheerleading attire in my old closet. Built-in dressing room for the little girls in our lives. Hopefully it gets used before Mom goes on another cleaning spree!
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