Sorting

Today Ned and I went through the house deciding what we will keep and what will go in the Estate Sale. Although we are not keeping a lot of furniture, I'm afraid we are keeping too much. Add to that boxes of books, dishes and special pieces of folk art, paintings, the photography collection, negatives and prints........Wow. We are going to have a lot to pack and store.

As we went through the house deciding what to keep, we tried to use as a criteria....what is unique? What will make another house look like us. But it is very hard not to remember when something was bought and sometimes how precious it was because of the time or how hard it was to pay for it. It is hard to stay focused on "sorting" because you tend to stop and look.....look at old High School and College Annuals or at individual Christmas decorations....and remember and talk, "Do you remember when?"

There was a company in Houston called The Christmas Furniture Company. They made pine furniture from the most beautiful hard pine I have ever seen. Those old pine forests are gone. The pieces are solid wood, the tops are thick slabs of pine but the pine isn't a dark blackish pine that was typical of the time it was bought. Instead it is a beautiful warm wood color. It is early American style but simple almost like the Shaker style. I have two end/table-chests and a 48-inch round pedestal table. It is time to let them go. The table is the hardest to let go. My sons grew up eating at that table.

Another thing that it is hard to decide about....lamps. I have two original Stiffel lamps and two painted porcelain lamps by Frederick Cooper. The Estate Sale person I interviewed today told me that I can't get very much for them but if I were to try to replace them they would be even more expensive than I paid for them. I guess the style today are the black stick contemporary type lamps.

My Mom died and then several years later my Dad. My sister and I were getting no where at cleaning out their house. We would open drawers or closets and just get lost in what was there. Finally we had a friend who came in and started finding new homes for stuff. She didn't have the memories or the grief that we had at that time. She would say, "The women's shelter can use this." Or "I think the Catholic resale shop can sell this." So in short order it was done. Thank God for her. We could have been weeks.

Our time is limited. We are going to have to stay unemotional and stay focused and plow through.

Yesterday we went and bought some boxes, bubble wrap, shrink wrap and tape....we have started but there is so much to do, I'm kind of overwhelmed. I'm not sure where to start.