What have you found as you clean?
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
Canada
January 20, 2011 11:38am CST
I've been doing a lot of cleaning, reorganizing and even some painting this month. Right now, I'm working on my office - shredding old records and papers, making room in my filing cabinets and such. Anyway, last night, as I was cleaning out a desk drawer, I found some letters my daughter had written to me a few years ago when she and I were going through a really bad time over a boy she was dating (an abusive relationship). I found these handwritten letters and sat down and read them again. Of course, they made me cry as it brought back the sheer hell we went through for about two solid years. I folded them up and kept them... I feel like it's really important that I have them. Sometimes we make fun or happy discoveries... sometimes, like mine, they are more sad or emotional. What kinds of things have you stumbled upon or "found" as you've cleaned?
3 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
20 Jan 11
I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing, too. Must be something about the time of year. I found some things that I'd written several years ago that surprised me with their clarity and force. I don't think I can write like that any more. I also found a new book that I should have given to my daughter for Christmas. I didn't even remember having it!
1 person likes this
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
21 Jan 11
I agree with you, peavey... it's the time of year for it. I went to Walmart for a few things last week and the whole "seasonal" section right by the door was completely filled with boxes, bins and organizers -- which was mostly what I went there for in the first place LOL I think that's awesome about your writing! Perhaps it will inspire something new from you in the coming weeks? :)) And that new book can just be a gift for another occasion now - save you a little bit of an expense! Not a bad thing at all 
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
20 Jan 11
I have stumbled on good and bad things too. I was going through some stuff and found a picture that my daughter had drawn of me when I was pregnant with my last child..she had to have been 4 when she drew it and I was a stick figure with a big circle right in the center
I had pretty curly hair though...very detailed face.
Now I have some things from my grandmother and although running across those make me smile..it gives me a sense of sadness and lost too. I just didn't have enough time with her...we reunited after several years..I mean several...and I had her for 5 years after. She was a shining light in my life. Oh how I miss her when I run across things sometimes. I have every letter she ever wrote me.
I had pretty curly hair though...very detailed face.
Now I have some things from my grandmother and although running across those make me smile..it gives me a sense of sadness and lost too. I just didn't have enough time with her...we reunited after several years..I mean several...and I had her for 5 years after. She was a shining light in my life. Oh how I miss her when I run across things sometimes. I have every letter she ever wrote me.1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
20 Jan 11
Not much, because I know where I keep everything, and anything important like old letters are kept in a box with my photos. I know they're there, and when I come across them I'm already in a reminising mood.
1 person likes this
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
21 Jan 11
It's really nice to be able to go to those things, now and again, isn't it? I have bins of my daughters' childhood photos and mementos that I love to look at now and again... and I also have a couple of boxes of photos that were my Mom's and I kept them all when she passed away back in '05. It's my intention to someday sort through them and try to organize them into proper archival scrapbooks... but you know how those projects go -- you know you want to do them and always hope you'll be able to set aside enough time to work on them.
