Around here Friday is clean up day. It's the day we do all the dusting and wash the bathrooms and most other regukar chores around the house. But every Friday I'm reminded of stuff that leaves me wondering why it's kept around. Back in th late '70s my parents had the idea at least one of us four kids should learn to play the organ. In this case an electronic organ. I don't know what they paid for it, but they bought one and paid for lessons for my sister and I. So we went to some lessons and learned how to play a few tunes, but over time we lost interest and eventually the organ stopped working properly. Nonetheless my parents kept this damned thing as a piece of furniture to fill the living room and as a place to set framed photographs. Every so often I ask, "Why are you keeping this thing? It doesn't work and no one is ever going to play it again. It takes up space for nothing and if it was gone you'd have more room to rearrange the furniture or have a place to put a nice little table." And, of course, it seems every house has knick-knacks that mean something to someone, but seem utterly pointless to you (or someone else). Anyone else with useless stuff around the house?
My mom had a decoration of these ugly blue acrylic grapes on a driftwood branch that she got from her grandmother back in the 70s when I was a kid. She kept them in the middle of the dining room table. They embodied the look of the 50s or 60s and would fit in perfectly in a Frank Lloyd Wright model home, except we were living with it in the 70s-early 90s (and my mom kept it through the 2000s). I never asked her why she kept it, but it must have had some nostalgia value from her grandma. When my mom died a couple years ago, I decided to take the grapes even though I found them hideous and my house isn't decorated with a retro style at all. I keep them on a shelf where I have a bunch of old photos, family heirlooms, the family tree, and photo albums. It reminds me of my mom. Funnily enough, I was watching the show "The New Girl" on FOX, and lo and behold, sitting on a shelf behind their couch, I saw this (click to enlarge):
My mother and I had very different tastes and when she was making her will I had to be very diplomatic not to offend her when it came to the fact that I dislike these eggs and didn't want them. I used my cats as an excuse and they went to my sister instead (she didn't get a say and does n 't like them either).
She might perhaps want to sell them over the internet. They seem to be painted rather artistically and there are collectors who pay outrageous sums for such items. I have a foldable bicycle that my granny gave me when I was 5 (and still much too small for it). I have a bigger and better one now, but keep the old one for reasons of sentimentality. When/if I have a little time in winter or some time next year I'll give it a complete overhaul.
No useless stuff in the house. Being posted every few years made my wife a master at organization. Over the years a lot of stuff - from furniture to clothing and everything in between - has been donated to all sorts of various organizations.
That's what I'm doing atm. My last move was rather exhausting and I'm trying to drop some ballast. It's incredible how much one hoards and collects over a few decades. It's pretty difficult, though, to give some things away. Particularly inherited stuff. There are so many memories attached.