The icicles have melted, the roads are clear, and the severe arctic weather seems to be behind us.

After I parked the car Monday afternoon, I haven’t stepped foot outside. I thought about photographing a Texas winter, but as soon as I opened the door and a blast of frigid air hit me, I slammed the door shut and put on another sweater.

I decided to put hibernation to work and tackled the overstuffed and cluttered closet in my office. Usually the door is closed, so I can pretend those shelves aren’t packed with memorabilia and junk I no longer remember and probably no longer need.

We pack rats have a hard time letting go.

But it was either the closet or vacuuming, so I tackled the closet. Two shoeboxes contained old letters and cards.

Some I kept, especially the birthday cards with my mother’s handwriting and her lovely notes to me.

My children, grandchildren and daughters-in-law have written me some tender notes, so those are keepers.

I tossed the generic cards, but reluctantly.

The box of old cords was a little harder because I have no clue what they powered up. I’ve watched decluttering videos and know I should toss them. Because I’m a pack rat, I’ll bet there’s a device in this closet that needs one of those cords.

That box went back in the closet.

I had a tall stack of blank CDs. When I googled what to do with those, a suggestion was to use them to store photos. But I realized I don’t have anything that can read a CD. Instead, those shiny CD’s are getting donated to an art teacher for projects.

Gone are the dried-up glue sticks, packing tape dispensers I could never figure out how to use and receipts from five years ago. Why I thought I needed to keep a receipt for a 2023 Happy Meal escapes me.

Back in my 40’s, I thought I’d take up cooking since my boys were on their own.

Realistically, I’ll never make Lobster Newburg nor will I squeeze lemons to make homemade lemonade. All those cut-out recipes ended up in the recycle pile.

I’d also been stockpiling cloth because I like to sew. But why I thought keeping scraps of material the size of a credit card was a good idea baffles me.

I threw the scraps away, but bigger pieces are being donated to the faithful quilters at Peace Lutheran Church.

I shredded financial statements from the 1980s and my old Weight Watchers notebooks. Reminders aren’t needed of what I looked like back then – I found incriminating photos in the closet.

There were some gems in the clutter. I found a picture of my dad, both of us smiling as he had me wrapped in his arms. The picture has always been one of my favorites and is now prominently displayed next to my desk.

I also found a picture I took back in the 70s of my grandparents sitting in their living room. Although their house is long gone, I can walk through that house in my mind.

The photo also reminds me of evenings sitting on that couch watching my grandmother crochet and then having coffee and cookies with them before the evening news came on.

Today, I’m looking at a more organized closet, bags of donations and two bags of trash. Going through those items created a slideshow in my mind of the past 40 years.

The front did make me sit down and declutter. Although it was cold outside, inside, I was surrounded by warm memories.

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.