Something About Nothing by Julie Seedorf

This year, for the first time in many years I used decorations for Halloween made by my children when they were in grade school. I am one of those mothers who save every art project in a box somewhere.

I found those somewhere boxes this week as I was cleaning, steaming and de-cluttering my basement. The decorations were in boxes that I moved when we moved back to Wells 20-some years ago. In those boxes were art work that had moved from Wells to New Richland, some 30-some years ago.

In my resolution to make my life simpler and easier by taking responsibility to not leave all, for my children to remove later on, I found treasures that I had forgotten about. The art work is not worth anything to anyone but me.

I spent part of the day with the Halloween drawings, putting them on contact paper and sealing them in so they don’t disintegrate. I probably should have laminated them but having no machine, I took the other step.

In the midst of the basement awfulness, meaning water that seeped in before fixing walls and a sewer line disaster, I found a possible reason why I am money challenged. Because of the disasters things had got piled in places. The places they were piled in didn’t have labels and there wasn’t a place for everything, except perhaps a pile. I suspect other people have the same problem.

I had a flash of déjà vu as I found repeats of things over and over again. We purchased the same things because we thought we didn’t have them. We looked in the basement and didn’t see them. The flash of déjà vu came because many years ago a friend of a friend moved.  The moving friends brought a small moving truck and couldn’t fit all their stuff in the truck. On the phone, not seeing the house, my friend offered to finish packing for them and send it, or put it in storage and have a garage sale, sending them the money. Little did she know, these friends of hers left their entire household furnishings.

The house and everything in it, top to bottom, looked like the family had disappeared into the night not taking anything with them. Clothes were still in drawers, dishes were still in cupboards, knickknacks and pictures littered the walls and furniture was still in place. The suitcases with the kid’s clothes were still in the house along with all of their toys.

As another friend and I helped my overloaded friend sort through the house, we found new items still in boxes in the basement, and second and third items of the same thing, also in boxes elsewhere. Over and over we saw the pattern, because of their disorganization; they would buy the same thing again and again.

It took us a long time to sort, sell and store these items. We realized the people that moved had been overwhelmed by their stuff, couldn’t deal with it and left to start over without it all. Unfortunately, when my friend offered to help she had no idea what the job entailed.

My stuff is not as out of control as that house, but in my basement I saw the pattern. Without being organized, money was wasted because when we needed something and couldn’t find it, we purchased it again. I am hoping in the next months to remedy that situation.

How do our lives get into such disarray? It happens to all of us. We get busy. We are tired. Sad things happen and we can’t seem to get it together to deal with the details of our lives that need to be done to function well. We add things to our lives because we think they will bring us more enjoyment but they only bring moments of joy only to be tossed in our someday pile, “someday I might need that again.”

At this point in my life I am very happy I did not toss those precious art moments of my children’s lives as they were growing. Looking at them reminds me of their journey of growth. What I don’t understand is why I hid them away in boxes without labels so I couldn’t pull them out each Halloween or Christmas or spring. Hidden away are gems that we never look at because they are stored in a box, tucked away for later, unlabeled.

Halloween is days away and I miss my kids on Halloween. I miss the excitement of choosing a costume and the excitement of getting them ready.  This year I will be able to remember the Halloween pasts by looking at what their little hands designed for me.

I will be able to see the pumpkin decoration that says “I love you mom.” I will smile and remember as I am answering the door to the cute, costumed neighbor kids and their parents making memories that will last forever.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/sprinklednotes.