Take a Trip Down Memory Lane

The blog challenge about my parents was interesting for me. I realized that my mom has escaped the camera several times and has also managed to never have met some of my closest friends. She's not the social butterfly that I am, but at one time she was. In searching for proof of this, and because I really really want to see what I can potentially make a profit from in the form of extortion or selling whatever wares are in the store room, I decided to tackle that beast.

For ten years now, we've had this house...and for ten years, we've been accumulating crap. I have managed to scale down my level of crap because I have moved around so much. (Thank you sorority life for having me move every three months.) But as I look around from time to time, I moved back into a place that I never moved out of, so there is tons of stuff that I need to go through. In addition, I have my mom and my grand parents that have just used the store room as an "out of sight, out of mind" sort of place. Not to mention that my little cousins treated it as their play room and exploring place when they would visit. These kids also have never had to nor know how to pick up after themselves. And that's not me being a judgey non-parent. That is a fact.

Point is, I have a lot to do. Here are some of the pics from the store room as I started last night. I'll make sure to post pics of it as I go and of all the things that are being trashed, donated, and sold.

The view from the door

Look to your right and you see this daunting task

From the back of the space, you have to plot your return and wear a helmet.

I had to break this room down into mini-projects because my ADD/OCD would not be able to function. This first phase is the Weed Through phase. I will start to go through everything determining what needs to be kept and what doesn't. Simply leaving in the box that it was in, or condensing it if possible. If it has anything remotely to do with a holiday, it is saved regardless and put on the back wall for an extensive Weed Through, Sort, and Family Pick Through. If there are boxes or bins that can be reused, they are being stacked and kept for the second phase which is Organization. This phase will consist of logically boxing and binning items that belong together. The boxes when then have a label on them describing their contents. There will be boxes designated for the family members and those will have to be picked up or shipped to that family member because if it's theirs, why are we storing it?

(I will digress greatly if I go any farther.)

(Now you see how easily I distracted and I'm just writing about this.)

The third phase will be my favorite phase because it means that I will get to sell things! I arranged with my mom and grandma that I get to keep whatever I manage to bring in from the sale of things. They have a veto power before I do so, but they have to say something before I sell it. And, I'm giving them a finite time line. If they don't go through the stuff by a certain date and they don't say anything, it's gone. I have two very emotionally attached individuals that need to be reminded that they can scrapbook pieces and then get rid of everything else. If there's a need for something, then use it, if not, toss it. There's no reason that we should have so much stuff that we don't even know we have.

What's great about clearing out all of this junk is that I am getting a miniature trip down memory lane. I had to stop myself from going through every single little piece of memorabilia that my mom has saved over the years, but I did manage to get a gander as some priceless pictures. I saw some of my personal favorites of me since there was a whole box dedicated to me, but there were some great shots of my parents before me.

But, let's be honest, this blog is about me, so I'm going to share some precious gems with you that I found.

Here's my Brownie/Girl Scout Troop as we "crossed the bridge" from Brownies to Girl Scouts. I'm second from the left looking down into the stream.

Kindergarten. Rocking the 80's hard core. I was rocking a longer Dorothy Hamil.

4th Grade. Rocking the 90's hard core. Yes, that's me in the upper left with the bow as big as my head and pearls.

These pictures are just the tip of the iceberg for what I have planned whenever I get through the Weed Through, Organization, and Sell phases. When the store room is done, I plan on putting all of my memorabilia into a format that I can carry with me forever and to also digitize pictures where I can for duplication in the future. Whenever I get to that phase, I'll post more of those pictures because they are simply amazing.