I opened up the shed and began the task of sorting. In one word: overwhelming. My parents are border-line hoarders. I can say that b/c I'm pretty sure that they will never read this blog even though I've emailed them the link. Another reason I can say that is because a good majority of the stuff they've "hoarded" once belonged to me or my sister. I have seen my mother take things to the Little Theater rummage sale every year since I can remember, so I really have no clue how they accumulated so much stuff. The thing about their "stuff" is that for the most part I can remember it all once being inside the house. And, at some point when the room in which it was located was cleaned out, someone deemed the "stuff" too precious to get rid of or determined that "we might need that someday." Well, someday has come and we still don't need it.
I did find some really cool things like: the mirror off my Nissan Altima I totaled my junior year of college, a square of the wallpaper that used to hang in my room, a shirt that I wore all the time in 7th grade, a brand new box fan that I quickly claimed for our bedroom, one of Jeanna's rubberband balls, some singing and dancing Christmas penguins, a plastic tub that I had obviously packed as I moved out of William Carey- dumped in my parent's shed and never touched again, and 4 different rodent cages.
My most exciting find was a Bible story book that I read every single night when I was a kid. I have wondered where that book went for years and had searched for it in my bedroom at my parent's house with no luck. I was just thinking about that Bible story book the other day as I was reading through the Bible. So many of those stories I remembered from reading that book as a kid. I am thrilled to have found it again! It was in a box of stuff from Katie's room so she had obviously thugged it at one point after I moved out. Since it's the Bible I'll forgive her. :)
In addition to searching through the shed, I also spent some time going through mine and my sisters' old bedrooms. I found a letter that I had written to myself my sophomore year of high school to be read my senior year of high school, something our teacher Ms. Edwards had made us do. I was disappointed to discover that most of the letter contained a detailed explanation of what was happening on The Bold and the Beautiful at the time. I laughed when I read things like "the trial's still going on" (on B&B) like I would still know what the heck that was or even care. I also spent a paragraph wondering if Ross would pick Rachel or Bonnie (the cliffhanger of Season 3 of Friends). Man, I was so shallow back then.
Katie's room contained mostly craft supplies, Phi Mu t-shirts, and Beanie Babies so I pretty much left it alone. I DID go on ebay and price the Beanie Babies and discovered that some are being sold for quite a high price. The problem is that no one is bidding on any of them. We'll just let Evangeline play with them for now.
As I dug and dug through all this STUFF I kept thinking about Matthew 6:19, "Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." While few people would call my camp craft projects or fifteen dance programs, "treasures," I have definitely been storing up for years. At some point (most of) this stuff was really important to me. My priorities have definitely changed. I don't even want these things anymore and they are MY things. It's only been a few years compared to eternity. How much sillier will all of these things appear from heaven? What is important are intangible treasures that I am storing up for heaven- teaching my children about Christ, sharing Christ with others.
Then I began to wonder what will happen to all of this stuff in 100 years? Where will it be? In a dump somewhere? Who will have put it there? Who will come in and care so little about the box full of arts and crafts I made in preschool that they just throw them away? Honestly, I'm okay with getting rid of that box right now, but still I'm "saving it." For when? For what? For who? I have no clue.
I really don't know if we will make any money at the garage sale. I can't imagine who would want any of our junk. Like I said before, it's my junk and I don't even want it! But, we'll give it a shot and hopefully at least cover the cost of renting the space ($15). I did find two irons (one of which I assume belonged to me in college, the other to Katie), two baby gates, some doggy stairs that Cookie was too dumb to figure out how to climb, quite a few picture frames, and a couple of tables. Keeping my fingers crossed.
As I've been typing Evangeline has been cleaning out the pantry, her favorite thing to do these days other than take baths or watch Wonder Pets. Got another mess to clean up!
Great news about finding the irons. Reckon if we have three we can figure out how to use one?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, my family had a yard sale at least twice a year every year, best I can remember. We'd go through our closets, the sheds, everything. Dad would say, "You planning on wearing this much?" If you said, "Well..." he'd say, "Put it in the yard sale." "Does this have any serious sentimental value to you, Sandra?" he'd ask my mother. "Not really," she'd say. "Then, toss it in the yard sale pile." Needless to say, we didn't let alot of junk accumulate. But, even now, when I go in my parents shed, I see a few things, and I think, "Wow, why do we still have that?" So, I guess everybody hates to part with some things, don't they?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My parents want to have a joint yard sale with us so they get rid of all that junk that's piled up in their shed!