The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I’ve shared a lot over the years about the good and the bad in our lives, especially in regards to our adoption.  Today I’m going to show you the ugly.  Really, it does look worse in the picture than it did in the actual closet.  Jay was overwhelmed.  He had no idea what he was getting himself in to.

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Yes, all of that stuff was in 1 closet.  One not so big closet in our entry way.  Yes, I am embarrassed. 

Jay and I’ve been working on the Great Muck Out of 2011 over the last week. This enormous project all started because of looking for 1 little computer CD in the computer cabinet.


I do go through our closets and drawers frequently. I try to give our house a good scrubbing every 6 months. But I don’t get through everything all at the same time. This is probably the most heavy duty sort out we’ve done since we moved in 7 years ago. Really, I do keep our house clean…this is just the hidden stuff.

I don’t think I’m a hoarder. I throw things out on a regular basis. By 7pm on Wednesday evenings I’m asking Jay if he’s read the paper and if I can throw it out. But there are things I’ve collected over the years that’s really hard for me to turn loose of. It seems like the older I get the worse I get. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I've think about my Depression Era Grandma’s more and more for some reason. I can hear their voices saying….you never know when you might need that.

• 16 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper. I like a good variety. Some of these rolls I’ve had for years. I only wrap one or two presents from each kind every year. Five of them have never been opened. Not sure when I got them.

• 7 packages of unopened name tags. After finding them it all came back to me-in 2009 I bought several after Christmas. In 2010 I didn’t remember any of that and bought more.

• Countless gift boxes. I know I hoard boxes. I can’t help myself. If someone is going to throw it out I’ll take it. I may need that exact size next year. My problem is so bad that even though I know I’ve got plenty at home I will still get one from the store if they happen to be giving them out….and I’ll also keep it for the next year.

• Ribbons. Very similar to the box obsession. I use real ribbon on my packages. It actually pains me to see someone throw away one of my ribbons. I find myself watching what happens to the ribbon when the present is being opened – much like a mother can’t take her eyes off of her baby when someone else is holding it. Now our families are trained – they give them back to me as soon as they untie them. Jay said I’m sick….People give them back before they even enjoy opening their gifts. Again, I know I have a problem. The gift wrap/box/ribbon thing came from my Grandma Ewing. It’s so similar it’s scary.

• About a billion coats – including several that I had in HS. Jay made me get rid of them. I know other people need them more than I do, but what if I do need them some day?

• Old sheets and curtains. I can’t part with them. What if I need them some day because I need to sew a dress out of them or something….or if we move or paint. They do make good drop cloths. He at least got me to move them out of the hall closet and into a tub in the garage.

• Craft supplies of any sort…ribbons, paper, fabric. Jay tried to throw some of my paper away. I almost passed out (actually I said what if we have no money some day and need to write a letter to our families?  Jay said if that was the case we wouldn't have money for a stamp so there was no need to keep the paper).  We did find a home for it in the hall closet. It’s amazing how much room you have when you move out old curtains. But Jay hasn’t looked behind our bed yet. That’s the blessing/curse of angling your bed in a corner. It’s makes a great hiding spot for all the material that was in Camryn’s closet that I had to move when we brought her home. I need all of that material for all the projects floating around in my head (that I will never actually have time to do).

We are probably a little more than halfway through the great muck out. Last night we tackled our closet, but Jay had just as much stuff to get rid of in there. I think we had 5 large garbage bags of clothes. Embarrassing. It has gone so much faster with Jay’s help. We only started a week ago and we very likely could be finished by this weekend.

After taking one load of stuff out to the truck to give away that included some FFA and FCS stuff Jay said that if anyone who knew us at all happened to go through the stuff they’d be able to figure out who it belonged to. A little while later I had a diaper box full of various books on infertility(everything from how to survive it to a fertility diet) and an A-Z guide on Adoption. I agreed with Jay that someone could figure it out. Jay said “yeah, especially with our name and address on the diaper box”. Whoops! I had to rip that off. I don’t actually want anyone to know who’s responsible for the Christian Service Center’s donation junk increase this week.