Stuff

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by stuff.  The way it accumulates, takes up space, has to be dusted, and weighs me down.  This month I have been dealing with lots of stuff, most of it not mine.  Four years ago, when Grandma Hare became mentally unable to live alone, we moved her out of her apartment into Aunt Georgianne's home.  We boxed up most of her belongings, dispersing the odd thing here and there, but mostly putting everything in storage.  There were many,  many boxes of her precious things.  Since then, most of the large furniture items had gone to family members, and some of her household goods had been distributed, but the vat majority of the boxes remained in storage.

Last month, Georgianne and my mom decided the time had come to clear out those boxes and pass Grandma's treasures on to other people.  I was enlisted to help with that.  One Friday in September, Mom and I began opening boxes and sorting through stuff.  We quickly realized that we needed to approach this massive undertaking differently, so we set a date in October when we would have a "garage sale" for family members, a time when everyone could come and take what they wanted.  Considering the amount of stuff, it was the only way.  We set October 12th as the date, but for a couple days before, we prepared.  I pilfered tables from the church and began opening boxes.  Lots and lots of boxes.  By the time we had everything out of storage, we had filled ten large tables with Grandma's stuff.  Grandma had beautiful taste and many of the things we unwrapped are so lovely.  The thing is, Grandma seemed to feel that if one of something was good, eight of that something must be better.  She loved goblets, glassware, and baking supplies.  She had nine bundt pans, eleven springform pans, six cake stands, and dozens and dozen of glasses.

Last week, everyone came.  We opened the garage, pulled out boxes, and people made selections.  It was super fun to see all my cousins, and wonderful to remember Grandma as we went through her stuff.  By the end of the day, about half was gone, which overall was excellent progress, but which still left half.  I consolidated the remainders to five tables, and today we had a real garage sale.  Last week we had many people stop and want to buy things, and eventually I put up a sign that said, "NOT a yard sale," but encouraged everyone to return today.

I was pleased with our success.  Not only did we have Grandma's stuff, four friends brought over goods, so again the garage as well as the whole driveway were filled with tables.  All told, together we made just over $1,100.  My take was just over $400.  Yeah!  Stuff went away to bless someone else's life.  At day's end, we filled the back of the car with things to take to DI, although I didn't send everything.  Some of Grandma's things were not DI worthy.  I still have seven small boxes of glassware I am going to sell on KSL or ebay, and a couple of pieces of furniture, but those boxes fit nicely in a corner of the garage and I am going to work on those a bit at a time.  I have been saving money for an entertainment center I want to put in the family room, and with the garage sale money, I am nearly there.

Seeing all the stuff that Grandma had makes me want to purge a bit in my own house.  I find, however, that as I begin to look around the house, I have a hard time parting with my material goods.  Although we have a lot of stuff, I like it.  I like our home and the memories that spring to mind when I look at particular pieces.  I know I could do without much of the stuff that encumbers my life, but I haven't yet arrived emotionally at the point where I can get rid of it.