One of my friends is very organized and every year she starts in January and gradually goes through her entire house - every closet, cupboard, drawer, desk. box, etc. - until she has cleaned out everything. I don't have the discipline for that and neither did my mother or any of her sisters. My Aunt Cornelia, who lived on a potato farm in Idaho, used a sweeping out method. When she decided it was time, she would throw everything she wasn't interested in keeping on the floor and sweep it all out onto the house wide front porch. The husband and kids could retrieve whatever they wanted in the next day or so and then it would be swept into the yard where the hired help would use the skip loader to bury it somewhere on the farm. I suppose they could take their pick also. She did this once when we were visiting and I collected all the books I could carry home to Portland with me. Still have a couple!
However, ultimately everything must be sorted and culled and I am, after all, eighty years old now. My time is getting short. So, as a start I actually cleaned out a drawer in my kitchen - the "silverware drawer", as it is called, but it is really the flatware or stainless steel drawer. I emptied out the flatware on the counter removed all six dividers, it is a wide drawer, washed them well, dried them, and arrayed them around the counter to dry completely. Then I went about my day without going into the kitchen again until I fed KoKo his dinner at 5pm. What a surprise to see all that stuff on the counter! I had completely forgotten to go back and finish the job. So, I replaced the dividers, sorted the flatware, put it back in the proper places, took a photo, closed the drawer, went in to sit down and play with KoKo for a while. Big job done!
Now, some might say why does a single old lady who doesn't entertain need all that flatware. I don't, but it isn't bothering me to have it in the drawer. What would it be like to open that big, wide drawer and see only six knife, fork, spoon sets? Silly. There are pieces there that belonged to my mother and grandmother, though not stainless steel, and they remind me of those long gone ladies whenever I see them. That is worth something to me. So, I will try another drawer and see what I might pass on to the Salvation Army, but maybe I will just keep it all. To remind me of the past, perhaps. The official organizers say if I haven't used something in a year I should get rid of it. But they don't live in my house, nor does anyone else! So, I will keep things as memories, even if I never use them again. If I have ten years left I might get through every closet, cupboard, drawer, etc. before I'm gone. But I doubt it. Pity the poor people who come after me to clean it all out. I should make a larger effort, right?
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