Saturday, October 23, 2010

Things Are Just Things (Except When They're Not)

Today I wanted to share a post from a blog I have been following on blogspot, called Stuff No One Told Me (But I Learned Anyway). The blogger is Alex Noriega.

I am struggling this week with some things from my childhood. My parents are moving from Mississippi to Alabama and are attempting to clear out their gigantic house. The plan is to buy something smaller in Alabama once the current house sells. My mother has two rubbermaid trunks of toys and books from my childhood that need to come live with me. She also has a wooden doll cradle that my great aunt made for me. All of these items have a huge amount of sentimental value- we only saved my very favorites. Some of the items are hand made (including quits for the cradle) and the cherished books are probably out of print. My closet here contains my Barbies and American Girl dolls, which were dearly loved and often played with. I know that loving homes could be found for the all of these things, and some could be sold for a profit on Ebay.

The problem is that when I think about getting rid of these items, I can't help but imagine keeping them for my own daughter to love and play with. As I child I really enjoyed finding toys that belonged to my parents and their siblings, and always wished there were more of them around.

The flip side is that I don't actually have a daughter- I may not ever have one. Meanwhile, I have no idea where to store this stuff. Living in Florida means that my un-airconditioned attic is not a good solution. I am working on clearing out my storage spaces, but I'm not sure that I want to fill them back up with things that I don't actually use.

So there's the problem. I know that things are just things, but some things are more special than others.


1 comment:

  1. Especially this close to the move, I know how you feel. There were somethings that are super sentimental to us, that we weren't sure how to handle.

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