Tat wrote: > When your time on this earth is over, your children > won't remember your accumulated garbage - let them remember the warm imprint > of your arms enfolded around them.
Since I have all of my mom's things to deal with, this is something I have thought about. The good side of having her things: There are things that Mom kept I am grateful for. Her mother's beauty school student card, a letter she wrote to me when I was young (haven't read that one yet), a pillow case she machine embroidered for me in grade school to name a few. There are things that I know I will enjoy. Mom and I shared a love of knitting and sewing - I will find much joy in creating clothes from some of her fabric and yarn. I hope that there are 3 of the pictures she painted while I was in high school me and my siblings can each have one. As I go through her things, I am sure there are other things that will bring add value to my life or to the lives of family and friends. The bad side of having her things: Mom left tons of stuff, I really wish there was less. Sometimes I am irritated at her for leaving me so much stuff to deal with. Sometimes I am irritated at myself that I wasn't ready to begin dealing with her things right after her funeral when my brother and sister-in-law could have helped me and irritated at myself that I am not able to accept help from others. Because of the finality of deciding what to do with her things, it makes deciding what to do with my own things look easy. Mom spent the last couple of years before her death decluttering - 2 years was not long enough to undo 68 years of being a packrat. I think that if she had a couple more years, I think she would have left things that we would be happy to have while leaving me less stuff to make decisions about. As I declutter my own things, I will keep in mind my feelings about the things Mom. I don't want someone to have to wade through clutter I left. I also don't want people wishing I hadn't thrown away things that would have added value to their life. Joanne *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Journey from clutter List Website http://journeyfromclutter.com Members Only Page http://journeyfromclutter.com/MembersOnly/MembersArea.htm Unsubscribe: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word 'unsubscribe' in the 'Subject:' field to be removed from the main list. To Unsubscribe from the Digest version of the list send the unsubscribe message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
