Moving On

Yea. I got the Christmas decorations put away yesterday. And I brought out the Easter decorations so I won't have to open the attic stairway again for a while. Come to think of it, why do I keep these things in the attic? I have plenty of storage space on the first and second floors. I should fill the attic with the boxes labeled, "Things Maggy may want someday."

I actually have boxes labeled that way. Some are already in the attic: the Breyer horses and the complete collection of He-man and She-ra action figures and their accessories. But there are more: stuffed animals, books, ballet costumes, mementoes. Yep. That's a camel, a parrot, a lobster and a fish. These are among the ones I've sworn not to give away without her permission. The camel was from Aunt Susanne. The parrot talks. And the fish was Maggy's first experiment with installment buying. It's a hand puppet from Handwork, where I worked when she was about eight years old. Her allowance wouldn't cover it and she couldn't live without it. So I let her put it on "layaway."

In fairness to Maggy, these boxes are not the worst of my clutter problems. In fact, they're the only part of my clutter that I kind of know what to do with. I'm not 100% sure that huge blue teddy bear my high school boyfriend gave me isn't lurking around somewhere. I know my prom dress and wedding dress are hanging in the closet. And I've had them a lot longer than Maggy's had anything.