So we got a dumpster delivered yesterday and today I need to start cleaning out closets to rid myself of clutter. I hate clutter, which is hard to believe seeing my house, but hopefully I'll get rid of a lot of useless crap. It's difficult for me, though, making decisions about what to toss and what to keep. There are a lot of things I have that I don't use and I don't necessarily want, but the origin of the thing makes it special. I'm not sure how much practicality and sentimentality outweigh each other.

For example, my grandmother was a very talented seamstress. She could eyeball a $300 outfit, go spend $15 at the fabric store and an hour later, have that exact outfit. In my closets, I have a number of dresses that she made for me. Well, I'm fatter now than when she made them, even if I wasn't they are no longer in style so it's not likely that I'll be wearing any of them again. So it would seem that these should be tossed, either via the dumpster or Goodwill. But on the other hand, my gramma made them for me, and she's gone, and...she made them! I'm not sure I'm heartless enough to just take them off their hangars and put them in the "dispose" pile. But then, the idea of packing them up, storing them, moving them and finding a place for them, just so they can live in a box somewhere in my new basement or attic seems kinda stupid.

There are a lot of things like that in my house; that's just one example. Another is stuffed animals which are special because of the people who gave them to me over the years. But then I think, "I'm thirty-lots - why do I need 6 crates of stuffed animals?" But I'm not sure I can bear to toss them, either. I also have tons - and I use "tons" literally (<---- that was a pun) of books. Some of them I doubt I'll ever go back and re-read, but the idea of getting rid of books makes me break out in hives - even if I gave them to Goodwill; I'd never just dumpsterize a BOOK, no matter how badly written.

Sigh. It's so hard. I want to de-clutter my life, I don't want to pay to store and move tons of useless crap...and yet, there's always the "and yet" part. And you know whichever way I decide, I'll regret it and wish I'd done the other.

Fortunately, I get to postpone this decision because my dad just called. He's coming up to supervise/help us put in threshholds and trim to finish up the hardwood flooring project. I won't be any nearer to figuring this 'keep it or toss it' thing out but maybe the floors will be finished. In some rooms, anyway.