Yesterday was a hugely successful purge day, until it went very wrong.
We combed through, bagged up and burned everything that could not be given away.
I, Stacie D, had set myself on task to go through the totes that are going to my parents' house for storage. We started at six, 55 gallon plastic totes, one extra large hunting box and one extra large Christmas tote. When I headed into it yesterday, we were down to five, 55 gallon totes and the hunting box.
I've learned that it's all about consolidation.
But I knew going in again, determined to lighten the load, was going to be hard.
I started with my dance tote. All my ribbons and trophies and shoes. Quickly though I realized most of them were kept because it impressed my kids.
"Wow Mom! Look at this! You won this?!"
You really can't hear that enough...
But as I cleared them away, the same thought kept coming back to mind over and over.
"You can't make new memories if there is no place to put them."
So, with the Inventor's last line of...
"Mom, you are so cool!"
They were gone.
Next, came the tote full of baby memorabilia.
Fortunately, it was only 2/3 full...the rest were framed pictures of family...keep.
I easily went through it. I had already talked with the Artist about what he wanted to keep.
✔The baby calender that served as a baby book until I found the Inventor was coming. You can literally see where I stopped documenting coincides with him being a soon-to-be big brother. 😞
❌To the mylar balloons from his baby shower.
Then there was a stack of baby quilts their Mamaw and Grandma had made the three of them...absolutely keeping.
Lastly, a bag full of cards from their baby showers.
Since I had been mercilessly throwing cards away all week, I tossed this out too.
About a half hour later the Yeti came up to me and commented about how great we were doing. I think his exact words were...
Wow, I mean, isn't it great that we are passed the yuppie stage of keeping things like pregnancy tests and hospital bracelets?
And that is when my world imploded.
I vaguely remember turning sideways and bracing myself on my knees. I do remember that I was holding my breath until he asked me of I needed to be held, and to that I answered yes.
Just writing this is making me cry...
Inside that bag full of cards, held items I could never duplicate or get back. And now they were up in smoke.
As I stood there crying into my husband's shirt, there were only two things that brought me back to reality...
1.) I always wondered if keeping pee sticks was gross...which now I don't have to worry about.
2.) My 3 beautiful children were living PROOF that surpasses any hospital bracelet or pregnancy test.
I literally just took a deep sigh as I reminded myself again.
So, after the tears dried and we continued on with the day, I found we all made it out of that okay. Nothing really changed.
The Yeti has already made a fire joke to which he promptly asked..."too soon?"
Which I replied...
We'll see ya on down road!