Why do we keep things

The biggest news for July is that I finally got my storage unit cleaned out. I don’t even want to think about how much I have spent to keep all the things we brought from Illinois. And that is what it was in it —just things. I went Wednesday, the last day in June and swept out the cobwebs and a half a bucket of dust from the storage unit. No, not really a half a bucket but there was a lot of dust.




It was so hard to get rid of Edward’s things. Most of it I didn’t even know what it was other that it was something he worked on. It’s really sad in a way, a man spends all his life working on something and when he is gone, we take it to the dump. A small portion of it, I did save because the memories are still too strong. But, it does not make sense to pay thousands of dollars in storage fees for

computer printouts of something that is antiquated.



I pitched several dumpsters full of nothing more than books. I love books and probably kept more than I should have, because my book shelves are still overflowing. The children wouldn’t let me get rid of some of the furniture and antiques though. I’ve been emotional and teary-eyed all month, but it feels good to have it over with. There are still a few things left in my car port to be dispersed, and my house is bulging with things I couldn’t let go of, but the worst is over.



This experience has made me think about the things that I hang on to someone will have to go through all over again when I die. Why do we as human beings hang on to these things? We don’t need it wherever we go from this mortal life. The most important things are intangibles, love, memories, kind deeds, and experiences. Those are the things that are impossible to replace.

Why is it harder for some of us to throw away things than it is for other? I think young people are better about de-junking. Those of us from an era where things were hard to get and we had to make do with what we had, tend to hang on to things more.



I remember Aunt Ruthy talking about how it is still hard for her to throw away

gallon jugs because the family saved them to sell Uncle Jake’s molasses. In those days, we saved fabric in the form of, good but too small clothes to make into quilts. The idea of buying brand new yard goods to put into a quilt was a difficult one for me to get use to.

That was the days before the different marts we have now.  Are things going to get like that again? There are some who believe it will. Some say there will come a time when we will have to mine the dumps. Makes me think of the movie Wall ~e


I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is I just left you a lot of books to read.