I realize that this blog is more or less a continuation of the previous blog about garages and the contents thereof. I made a statement that I believe the only way to really clean house is to move.
I also further opined that I’ve been in this house for 31 years. Begs the question as to what really constitutes a ‘clean house’.
Let me admit, right up front, that as bad — and in later years of his life– out and out compulsive as my husband was about hoarding, I was not then, nor even now, a whole lot better.
The rub seems to come in what and why we save. For some of us, this comes from the years our parents or grandparents spent living through the depression. You never, but NEVER throw anything away unless it has lived at least three lives. The milk bottle with a chipped lip lived on as a vase, then, when a crack appeared, it continued to live on as a receptacle for rubber bands or paperclips. I believe that was called ‘repurposing’!
So, then, I can’t throw something away that might still have another life. Why, that comes suspiciously close to heresy or slovenliness or something equally frowned upon. Slippery slope, folks. Repeat after me: “I can, and do and will!”
Next comes the “ . . . but as sure as I throw it away, I’ll have a need for that item.”
The sticking point here is that if I save enough things that “I might need someday,” how will I ever find it when I do need it? The phrase that is a part of my life: “I know I have one of those somewhere . . . .” and then proceed to go buy another one of whatever it was because I can’t find the original one.
Then, there are the magazines. How many magazines do you have because you want to reread or save some article? Or recipes? In this day and age, if there’s an article you like or a recipe you may want to try someday, you can just go to the magazine’s web site. Believe me, folks, you can find it a whole lot faster and easier than digging through stacks of old magazines. Because we all know that those magazines are full of distractions like, that article I meant to read, or maybe I’ll try this recipe instead . . . . But still . . . Well, there goes that afternoon!
Then there’s the jewelry? How many sets of earrings do I keep because “I just may have a top that goes with them someday . . . or bracelets . . . or sets of beads . . ? Have you ever kept any piece of jewelry you REALLY didn’t like, just because it might match something someday? Yup . . . been there, etc..
And, oh, can we talk about shoes? Oh, heck . . . . let’s NOT talk about shoes. I can trace my obsession directly to the size of my feet. No kidding, by the time I was eleven, I was wearing a size nine shoe. I know that’s no big whoop nowadays, but back in 1948, as we were getting ready for a family trip, the only thing my mother could find for me were lace up brown oxfords or old lady lace up 1“ heels.
I remember her saying, “Adrienne, just think how tall you would have been if they hadn’t turned so much of you under for your feet.” Of course, my feet have grown well beyond the petite size 9 of my youth and the industry has grown along with them. As a result, I still find it difficult to resist shoes if they fit the following criteria: 1), they are cute; 2), they come in my size; 3), they are on sale. And sometimes I can make do with only one or two of those activators!!
So, back to my original premise. To clean house one must move. O.K., that stands up in theory . . . unless you move the ‘stuff’ with you. When my children were 3 and 4 we made a move to the mid-west. We moved ourselves in one Ford Econoline Van and one U-Haul 12 ft. trailer. Doesn’t seem too out of round for a family of four. In fact, it seems downright efficient. Especially when that load included an electric piano, acoustic piano, organ and an acoustic bass.
So, how was it that five years later, on our return to the north state, it took a Ford Econoline van, a 12 foot U-Haul trailer . . . and . . . . a 28 foot U-Haul truck? I guess we must have over watered our junk, because it certainly did mushroom!
Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes … she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.
