Saturday, October 18, 2008

Death of a Quilt

Here is my latest Dejunking purge:
The sad thing is that I have only gone through 1/4 of the house. There is plenty more to be gone through, but already I can see a difference. Already I'm doing laundry more routinely as we run out of clothes more quickly.
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But that isn't what I'm here to talk to you about today. Today I want to discuss a very serious subject with you. It will be hard to talk about for some of you. Maybe some of you will use denial but we all have to face this subject sooner or later. You know what I'm talking about, we all have some stashed away somewhere. It's that piece of junk that you keep trying to throw away, you know you should throw away, family members have begged you to throw away, but you just can't. You can't because that junk MEANS something to you. You worry that if you toss it it will come back to haunt you. So you hang on to it, hoping that someday you will be able to resurrect it, use it, or somehow validate its existence once again. Yeah, I'm talkin' about THAT junk. Nasty, vile stuff. It preys on our emotions, using our memories and our guilt as a defense to keep its self alive. But it isn't alive. If an object is no longer useful or being used, if it embarrasses you to have others see it, if you spend more time storing/moving/hiding it than you do loving it then it is D-E-A-D dead. This explains all the skeletons hiding in my closets. Well, if my mom can get rid of her "perfectly good" ball of clay (seriously mom, that pic gives me the heeby jeebies), then I think I can finally bury my precious quilts.
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Fellow bloggers, we are gathered here today to pay our respects to Fuzzy #1 and Opus.
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Fuzzy #1, you were lovingly made by Mr. Hotness' mom and you were so fuzzy that Mr. Hotness loved you over all others. I know there were times that I was jealous of you. I admit to hiding you a few times, and I was constantly teasing Mr. Hotness about your existence. But you were a good quilt, and we used you well. I held on to you, hoping to turn you into a refurbished quilt. But, alas, I am lazy and you are dead.
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GoodbyeFuzzy #1.

Opus, oh Opus. You used to wear a flashy red bow tie at your neck. My boyfriend made you for me many many years ago. Remember that? It was the year when we all made quilts for each other. Oh, Opus, you squat little penguin from Bloom County, how I love you. As the only quilt ever made for me by a man I consider you a rarity that should be bronzed and hung in a museum for all to appreciate. Unfortunately I am so very lazy that I couldn't even manage to recover you. It is time to say adieu.

* (sniff sniff) Opus, please, I beg of you, don't look at me like that.


12 comments:

Sherilyn -Dominee Huisvrouw said...

My thing I keep hanging onto is boxes! We have moved 9 times in the last 9 years. We are now in a more permanent stage of life w/o plans of moving for at LEAST 5 years, and yet when my husband said the boxes had to go & we didn't need to keep them for next time, I was distressed! Where will we find enough boxes for the nest time we move? Some of these are the PERFECT size for their function! And don't get me started on how great diaper boxes are! I am slowly learning to let them go.....

Melanie Dickens said...

I read your blog alot but usually just lurk around. This was too good to pass up though. First of all my husband had a quilt that he packed and took on our honeymoon (I kidd you not) and secondly my thing I need to purge is a quilt I tried to make and know that I will never finish. Oh the agony to give up on that dream.

Lisa Merkley said...

Hee hee! I hold on to projects that I intend to finish. Usually it's something I get to a point where I am stuck and I can never get past it. But one day I will!

Lifeofkaylen said...

I LOVE purging!!
I love handing off the stuff, either to the dumpster or to a goodwill-esque store.
I love having more space from removing "stuff."
I love knowing that if I have to leave due to super-tycoon or hurricane or alien invasion-I have less stuff I have to dig through to find the treasures I want to pack.

dotmother said...

Oh my, you are BRAVE!! Getting rid of old quilts is like giving up chocolate, or homemade cookies, or mom's batter bread.

Goob said...

has somebody been reading Flylady?
Way to go on the decluttering!

Sherilyn -Dominee Huisvrouw said...

Feel free to steal the idea! I took it from another blog too. It was pretty fun to look at all my old pictures. Thanks for stopping by, I really enjoy your blog!

Anonymous said...

ugh--I have so much that I need to purge, too, but how can I??

Jennilyn said...

All I have to say is:
MAKE BEN READ THIS. Over and over and over and over again, and then maybe he will feel okay about throwing away the bar of soap he has from when he stayed at a hotel when he was 12.

Okay, I got to give him some credit. That bar of soap is now gone, as are the hideous birthday cards from years ago (including all of your farting cards). He had some from when he was 7. What kind of 7 year old saves cards?

CC said...

sniff sniff! It's hard to give this stuff away :(

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Wow good for you for doing a stuff-purge.

For me the hard thing to move past is my daughter's baby clothes. I get teary thinking about it. I'm working my way backwards, ebaying the more recent clothes first.

Anonymous said...

Oh My! I'm having a panic attack just thinking about purging any well used and full of memory items. But I know I have too. My guilt... the old boyfriend stuff.