My mother died long before Marie Kondo came along with her ideas of picture book houses devoid of “clutter,” but she would have been on board with all the concepts and methods. When I returned from the Navy, she had decluttered all my possessions except my guitar. They struck no chord of joy for her.
I have a conflicted relationship with possessions. I love having them. But as I’ve aged, I’ve also realized that many of my most prized possessions are touchstones. There, they sit on shelves for me to gaze at. They engage me with memories of the people who gave them to me and of times spent together. Like the scent of incense evoking a memory or a flame lightening the dark, they bring out the recollections of fun evenings, dinners, or weekends together.
Lots of the other “stuff,” like tools and clothes, is replaceable, but memories and people are not.
The things themselves are just emotional bookmarkers.
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My boys have always told me to never throw out their comic books or baseball cards. There they sit, in their closets awaiting their perusal and whoops for joy that I did, in fact, save their stuff!
The good mother….despite what the cats say about the lateness of dinners!
I have the same conflict with possessions. I love the concept of clutter-free, the image of opening a cupboard and finding everything neatly arranged and visible. But all those things of Mom’s… Well, I’m saving them for the grandchildren when they have homes of their own. Will they want those old china teacups and such? And DH has a firm hold on his ever-increasing collection of books. So…
I can relate. I like the concept of treasures being “emotional bookmarkers”