Goodbye Storage Unit!! (and a lot of other stuff!)

After nearly three years of payments for my storage space, in 48 hours, it will be empty and all of my belongings will be in this house with me. I have been working hard to purge and unload things and although I have a lot of possessions that are still in bins in the basement below me, it will be good to give up the storage unit.

It will also make it easier to go through these boxes. I’ve tried to organize things enough to make it easy to pull out a bin now and then to go through, but for now, the goal is to move the rest of the furniture (not a lot!) and the remaining bins here to my parent’s house. We have borrowed the storage unit truck for Friday afternoon and I have a couple of young men who will help make one final trip and unload and manage the steps to get everything else in place.

The process of sorting through the bins has been therapeutic, while some times, there were tears, most times, there were smiles and sweet memories. One box had a mix of things that I had labeled “scrapbook items.” Now, I’m not a scrapbook person, although I obviously was in my younger years, but these memories were good for the soul.

There were old letters from friends who are still very much in my life. There were smashed corsages from dances. There were report cards from kindergarten through my college years. Two lovely diplomas were found, dispelling any rumors that I never got my degree from Murray State. I understand why people questioned me…I did have a lot of fun in my college years…and I barely got out, with a little over the required 2.0!

I found “welcome baby” cards from my birth and I found telegrams that were sent for my first birthday! TELEGRAMS!!!!

If I could get a dollar for all of the greeting cards I had glued to the pages of scrapbooks or just in boxes, I’d be able to retire! I was fairly organized with boxes of “Cards from Greg” or “Cards from Mom & Dad” and “Cards from Katie” and “Special cards from friends.”

I was determined to read/revisit these kind notes and cards, and then without a lot of emotion, I tossed them. Of course, there were some notes that were especially sweet and I have kept a small box, where these notes/cards have been combined. The motivation was thinking about Katie going through these boxes of cards from people she doesn’t even know. I’m saving her the headache of having to set a torch to them some day.

I found my First Communion necklace (slightly tarnished) and I found a beautiful tortoise shell hair comb that I received from my great-grandma. I found the handkerchief that I carried at my wedding and I found the knit cap that I wore home from the hospital…in a small bag with a similar one that Katie wore when she was born.

I broke my arm in second grade and my school papers were pretty messy because I was trying to use my left arm, while my right arm was in a cast. I got some poor grades during that time. My Mom finally spoke to the teacher, asking her to give me a break since I was right-handed…the grades and the papers were much improved and my Mom must have thought I would want to see these some day because I found an oversized binder with all of my papers from second grade. Don’t tell her, but those papers are now gone.

I know there is a lot more to be discovered in the remaining bins. I also know that I have things that are sentimental, but like they say, “your kids don’t want your s#@t!” So, I keep Katie in my mind when I am going through the things, hoping I’m keeping enough of her history for her to appreciate but letting go after a short “visit” with some of the other things!

Unless you have had to deal with this, you probably think I’m a nut/hoarder/crazy person. I can’t really argue with you. I’m glad that I held on to these things until I was ready to let them go. I’ve taken the approach if I have to think too long about whether to keep it, I should let it go.

I’ve had a lot of these things in storage for a long time and it’s time. Tossing out bags of things was a good thing. I was doing it on my time, with the end goal of making life more simple whenever the time does come for my next chapter.

So, listen for a loud “WOO HOO!” on Friday afternoon! I’ll be one happy gal! Enjoy these pictures!!!

                                                                                      
My first real boyfriend sent this                      YAY diplomas! And a picture from 6th grade...

to me in 8th grade!      

                                        

A wedding gift with our invitation                                    College friends from MSU!!!

and our "colors" for our first 

apartment.

                                                                                            My first locker information!!