I was helping my mother this weekend go through her house to get ready for a yard sale and get some stuff on eBay and CraigsList. A lot of the stuff belonged to my grandparents that we inherited through gifts or from their passing away. My mother and I were amazed each time we’d pull tape, a box of kleenex, glue, etc. from a box my grandmother had packed. What was she thinking? Like we don’t have glue, kleenex, or tape at home or can’t get it from the store? My mom even admitted that to a degree, her and my father were pack rats for many years, until she decided enough was enough. Why store something if you’re never going to use it again?
That got me to thinking. Why do people store things that they’ll never use again? It seemed to me that it was a specific habit that started with my grandparents. My parents probably just learned it from them. So again, why? I figured that it had something to do with living through The Great Depression which all of my grandparents had the pleasure of experiencing. The mindset I think was that since goods cost money, one might as well keep everything because they could find one day that they need something and either don’t want to pay for it again or can’t afford it.
My mother just decided she didn’t want clutter anymore (why pay to move a bunch of stuff you don’t want?). I finally saw the light where I just can’t store the stuff. So, we started getting ready for a yard sale and putting things on eBay and Craigs List. What we can’t sell we’ll try to donate. Anything left over will just get tossed out. Mom figures its unfair to leave my brother and I to sift through decades of stuff after she passes away. Why not do it now when we have some small idea of what’s what.