Several months ago—maybe even a year—Simon received a gift of a fire truck. It may have been valuable, as it is an older toy and was still in mint-in-the-box condition. Simon asks to play with it every time he finds it, and we’ve always said, “Not today.” But yesterday we watched Toy Story and Toy Story 2, and this morning when Simon brought the truck out from its sort-of hiding place, I couldn’t help but think of Buzz reminding Woody that (for a toy) “life’s only worth living if you’re being loved by a child.” So I caved. And because it’s just the kind of sap I am, I actually got a little teary while I was looking for a screwdriver to unfasten the truck from its box so it could be set free to be loved by Simon.
I hadn’t really realized that the truck was probably a bit too intricate for a two-year-old, and in less than two minutes, Simon broke the truck.
And when I explained to Jason how I had been persuaded by Toy Story to open the box, he reminded me that Simon has plenty of toys to love and neglect as he will. Take poor Rody, for example, muzzled and abandoned:
In hindsight, maybe I let my emotions get the best of me. Perhaps I should have let the truck stay in mint condition and watch Simon from his box, never to be loved. How will we pay for Simon’s college education now?
Every now and again I get on a kick, and this one promises to be a doozy: we’re decluttering, simplifying, and selling, giving away, or simply throwing out all our junkety junk junk junk. Hoo boy, do we have a lot of junk, and I am kind of obsessed with getting rid of it. I’ve been reading organization blogs and making lists and generally daydreaming about a junkless home. (And I’ve been working on it too.)
We started with the easy stuff—books. Earlier today we went to Bluestem and sold four big bags. We also “donated” an additional three bags of books they didn’t buy but agreed to take off of our hands. We made a little money, and now our house is seven bags of books less cluttered. Tonight we started on the basement. We made some progress but decided that we need to alternate with smaller projects—next up is the pantry.
Some thoughts on the process so far, in no particular order:
- Jason and I are both completely fed up with telling Simon not to get into this or that. To put a positive spin on it, I do love his curiosity and desire to explore, but I mean the child is into everyeveryeveryeveryeverything. All the time. All. the. time. This is probably the biggest motivator for both of us right now.
- We’ve been running across a fair number of things that need to be returned to their owners, and more often than not I am embarrassed by how long I’ve had these things. I’ve been thinking of them as “the book of shame,” “the plate of shame,” “the coat of shame,” etc. Yesterday I returned a book that I’ve had since college—that’s fifteen years, people.
- It’s been fun to discover or rediscover things that I’d actually like to use. And it’s been satisfying to chuck things that I’d forgotten about and haven’t missed.
- I think this process will be good for our marriage. It will not, however, be easy. Let’s just say we’re learning to communicate. We have different strengths in this process (and different shortcomings) and, well, we just do things differently. But we’re learning about what’s important to the other—stuffwise and in other ways too.
- I am finding myself to be somewhat less sentimental than I might have thought. My big epiphany today was that just because I have a memory about such and such a thing that doesn’t mean it has actual sentimental value to me.
- I actually love decluttering and organizing; it’s the maintenance that brings me down.
