The GDO (Geek Day Out)
It wasn't really spring cleaning, it was deeper than that... you know those boxes that accompany you from your parents place, to your first home, to your second home and so on... they reside, unopened in the shed, or the loft, or under the house. Or, in our case, in the Pit of Despair (aka the full-immersion Baptismal, aka the Wine Cellar). These are the boxes full of precious Stuff that you can't possibly bring yourself to discard, as they hold the intrinsic meaning of your life. Well, due to the getting of a Good Deal from Theos, I needed the space in the Pit for, well, wine. So the boxes had to be tackled.
Geez I've kept some crap over the years!
Highlights included:
- All my uni notes. And readings. And HSC exam papers. (And I still have them, but now they've been transferred into vermin-unfriendly plastic crates. In the cupboard-under-the-stairs. Like Harry) (Yes, I know, I'm sad. But you never know when I'll need to read up on the Arthurian Legend. Or Geoffrey of Monmouth. Or the Model Prisons...)
- Newspaper clippings of Bosnian soldiers and dead Burundian peasants. Yeah, I don't know either. Obviously a phase I went through.
- The armless Bo Peep figurine that I was given by a treasured aunt when I was 8. It wasn't armless at first obviously.
- MrB's gridiron jersey thingy.
- MrB's 'What I drew on my first day of Kindy' pictures. Hee! We kept them!
- All my letters and postcards received in the preceding 10 years. And when I said all my letters, I mean all... fines from the Finance Dept of Sydney Uni; reminders from the Blood Bank (when they wanted my blood); the monthly booklets from Doubleday and The Softback Preview. Weird. Why the hell would I keep them???
We spent all morning at it, and both ended up with shocking allergies, but the end result was 5 boxes of recycling, 2 big garbages full of assorted old crappola and a sparkling (well empty) Pit ready for the installation of wine racks. A job well done.
And I won't even think about the fact that there are still boxes in my parent's loft. That will have to be dealt with when they move later this year. No Way Jose am I thinking about that... How can I bring myself to discard my 20 year old eraser collection? If it's still there and hasn't been consumed by the rats. Oh bugger.
And sorry Donnie, can't do your post on the Illawarra Live Steamers, as MrB has obviously forgotten to hit 'Send & receive' on Outlook, and I don't have my photos... Tomorrow. I promise!
Labels: uberhausfrau
posted by actonb at 10:09 am
9 Comments:
my mother has been threatening to go through my stuff at home for years. i keep telling her ill come down one weekend and go through my cupboards and throw it all out. but we all know that will never happen. hee!
Mex, my mum does that too. Because she has an empty four bedroom house but ... needs the space.
I just let her throw it out. If I don't know what it is, chances are I don't need it.
MrL has boxes. Uni notes boxes. he just moves then from home to home and no amount of my foot stamping will get him to actually open them. I have one large shoebox marked 'sentimental crap' in which I keep all my - um - sentimental crap. I'm disciplined about it. If it overflows, stuff gets chucked.
I hoard, but I only hoard short term.
mex - you just wait until she turns up at your place with a boot full of boxes... that's what happened to us. I thought the storage space at MrB's parents' place was a parallel universe and that we'd never have to clear it out.
LaRue - You're so amazing! Only one shoebox of sentimental stuff! I'm so proud of you. I'm assuming you wouldn't be keeping a ziplock bag of your first born's curls then...?
Having moved countries and houses within them more times than I can count I was brutal when I hit the storage locker in Toronto.
I did make my Mom save all my children's books though. Sad yet true.
It is such a satisfying feeling cleaning all of that isn't it actonb?
W - Childrens' books are sacred. That's not sad at all. But yeah, it is a perfect feeling of accomplishment.
live steamers eh.....snicker
Yes, shroom - I was wondering if MrB had to check them for a pulse? Cos if you held a mirror up to a "live steamer", it would fog up anyway, giving you a false sense of animation...
Of course you have built it up too much now, AB. You need to hope it is a rip snorter of post now, otherwise there will be howls of "Was that all?". Maybe you need to let it cool down a bit and just casually throw it up as a mid week post next week.
That is geeky.
But were you sober while cleaning???
Did you have a glass of Chardie or a can of VB in your non-dusting hand?
Shroom - yes, well, that's pretty much what I'd expect from you (spoken in my most motherly of tones)
Donnie - I know! It's just pictures of trains. But it's fun. Fine. Just you wait...
Surfercam - er, not while doing the sorting, as there was a large open pit and 2 small toddlers involved. But I needed a very large G&T to clear away the dust. For medicinal reasons.
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