Artifacts

I just finished the first of the rooms to sort.  Because we move so often I have adopted a strict policy of " if it isn't used in 6 months and it isn't a seasonal item it goes...." policy I have managed to keep the clutter down somewhat. I come from a long line of pack rats and I have had to gain skills to rid myself of the compulsion to save everything. Sometimes this is hard because I think of all of the uses for something. I especially hang onto papers and articles. I have folders of papers.  Papers I have written, articles I liked, things I found.... it goes on and on so much so it is falling off of my bookshelf. So Sam and I decided that we had to go room to room and sort through our things. 

Garage Sale, thrift store, throw out, storage and taking with us. Our last move we had 14,000 odd pounds of stuff..... we will be allowed a total of 9,000 pounds to go to Germany and whatever we put in storage gets deducted from our total to go. Needless to say the time has come for my house to go on a 5,000 pound diet. Time to learn to live with less. Toss out my pack rat ways and go for the gold of merciless pitching. 

I started with the laundry room because it was making me crazy, it was small room and there are things in there that sooooooo need to go.  Three hours and a walk down memory lane later the room is done. I had a bookshelf in the laundry room with papers of all kinds and a pile of laundry and stuff nearly a mile high in the laundry room. Sam had one shelf of odd things the twins kept tracking through the house. So I sent Sam in first this afternoon while I was grocery shopping, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and the speed and agility he rid himself of clutter. 

I had a shelf then, and it wasn't any shelf it housed the folders of paper. To give you an example I have a paper I wrote in high school in one folder. It was on diseases of the third world and I got an A; I loved this paper it was the first "serious" paper I wrote about where I planned to go "save the world" with my nursing skills. I have folders from my favorite college classes and papers I wrote for professors in undergrad. Articles from classes I liked. I found one folder especially interesting it was articles from my Global Politics class. I hated the professor she was awful but there were so many fascinating articles. They were on topics such as China's emerging power in the market place.... The articles were from 1994 and they were full of predictions of where business and China were headed in the next 10 years. some of the predictions were way off others close to current issues.  The 10 years has definitely come and gone. I especially loved reading my notes in the margins. maybe I haven't strayed to far from myself after all. There were articles on Islamic and western relations and where analyst had predicted conflicts might occur. The articles are from 1995 but, they predicted Afghanistan would be an issue. The papers I wrote, the grades I received it was like looking at my mind from a different place. Some of my thoughts were clearly influenced by the classes and others things I feel today still. Other ideas, artifacts of the past Heather who had yet to experience life.

I had to pitch a lot. When all was said and done Sam and I together threw out 4 garbage bags full of stuff, mostly paper. Artifacts from a past left behind. I wonder what I'll find in a folder 10 years from now journey's I have yet to go on things I have yet to file away. Who knows but, the artifacts of our lives are so fun to visit. I guess the anthropologist in me will never leave... just occasionally become buried in the paper folders I save :)