(Photo: Granny square I've kept about a dozen which were my first crochet project and left undone. My sewing machine has been with me for 4 decades and I've kept those threads for 2 decades and used it again for my Needleworkmonday projects).
What are the old worn out thing can I simply not part with?
First, I have the habit of keeping old things as a keepsake especially if it meant a lot to me that I brought it until now. Can you imagine that guys? It was way back when I learned to crochet. They're only few pieces of it, some were already worn out by transferring from one place to the other.
Old habits are hard to be broken so they say and I am guilty as accused!:) I can count which ones that my kids could only sigh. If you've stayed in one place all your life then you're lucky! But then, these are the realities in life when you try to look for a greener pasture and try your luck, right? Setting aside during my younger days, let's fast forward when I was already married. We first stayed with my in-laws considering that my hubby has to go overseas as a second mate officer and he was after our safety that he entrusted us to his parents. Then we were able to buy a small house which was only a kilometer away from our in-laws'. Decluttering is such a hard work! Of course, I brought everything and my mother in-law even told me to bring some of the cooking pots for our kitchen and one unused cutting table where we used as our dining table. It touched my heart dearly. Such a selfless act is a sign of kindness you seldom find in a person. She knows we can afford to buy those things but I accepted her offer willingly. For me, it was priceless! They're old but I consider those things as tokens of love.
They renovated their house and stayed at their old house commercial and asked us to take over when the house was done. It has divisions at the front for store rentals and the second floor was rented as well. We sold our house and transferred to their old house as per their request. Again, we need to pack up bringing everything! We stayed there for 33 long years until 2017 when one block of the lots owned by the previous mayors of our place for two generations subdivided their properties when their elders died. We were one amongst the families who had stayed there since the 60s that it was hard to relocate immediately, most of which were commercial buildings. We were given 3 years to relocate. Well, you can imagine how our things have multiplied since the kids were small until they graduated notwithstanding the other things I've given to my previous helpers who comes every Christmas and used clothings for our church's outreach project!
We had no choice but to vacate the place. The others have other lots where they could build a new house while the others went home to their farm,and those who rented looked for another place. Our building was made of hardwood though some were already worn out. I decided to have the hardwoods built into furniture instead and transformed them into a dining table, a TV organizer, cabinets, crockery, and aparadors. All of which were from our floorings. Each slab was about 2.5" thick and 14 feet in length. My carpenters made it at the back of our house. I had the other house extended to accommodate our furniture and other stuffs. I gave our old furniture made from pine tree lumbers to our helpers and our carpenter. I gave the good scraps to our men and I had the rest cut into firewoods and used it for more than one year! We only used our gas range on urgent occasions. That saved us a lot.
I've given more of our old things like old furniture and kitchen wares, yet the truck carrier still took 3 trips to fill our things. The time came when there's the urgency for me to stay with my daughter for good due to my health and Antonia, my granddaughter, needed to transfer to another school since she needed to take German lesson as required by her mother who's working as a nurse in a klinik in Germany. That was hard for me. Leaving my beautiful gardens behind is somewhat heartbreaking since it was sort of my refuge. Hence, I brought those in pots. I have to dispose of most of our things since I will be living with them. For the 4th time, I need to dispose half of our things! I donated our big cooking pots, chafing dish sets for big occasions to our church, including curtains and table covers. Antonia's toys and wardrobes she's grown up with were disposed of and my daughters' used clothings but still wearable on special events. I didn't want to sell them because I am not into it. I have to hire a van to carry my big crockery and 4 Jumbo plastic boxes for my kitchenwares which I never wanted to depart, most of which were brought by my husband while he was abroad.
I asked my daughter to create another door beside my bedroom where I can organise some of my things like my antique table, cabinets, TV organizer, and my sewing machine which is important for me. It was packaged by my husband, an original Brother brand sewing machine, far better than the new ones today. It may look worn out due to 3 decades of service but it's functioning is still good as new. It was my tool and weapon when money was scarce. It was a delight for the kids when they needed costumes for their school events. Most of all, I can create beautiful curtains, seat covers, pillow cases, bedcovers and anything fancy to make our interiors beautiful. Furthermore, I can make money out of it as the need arises, which is the reason why I still carried along those big boxes filled with fabrics and remnants which my Antonia's mom insisted should be left behind. All of the above-mentioned were my chosen few I intended to keep. Perhaps, the ones left behind will be donated to the church for their outreach project.
Another important wall decor that was left in our kitchen is a wall carpet that was given by my boyfriend for 2 years when they were on anchorage in Egypt. We got married after two years!
I was supposed to have it framed at the furniture shop but he only got the payment and no framing was done so I got it back without a refund. There were signs of mouse bites. Luckily, the little scratch followed the jawline of the sheep. We still use it until today!
Thank you ladies!
