Two Steps Forward....

I'm making progress with my dad at the house. I've been out to the house three times this month for days where we just work on little projects and cleaning up. I've accomplished the game closet, one of his kitchen cupboards, another go round with the "gift" closet, and about 20 boxes of just crap that my mom never went through. There are only 12 boxes left in Kate's old bedroom. That is great....considering I think we started out at 80 boxes in just that room alone. Yes, my mother was a collector. Or she was not a "thrower outer". She just couldn't purge anything. So Dad and I have been working at it slowly. Each time we end up with about 10-12 bags of garbage.

Left to do? Kevin's original old bedroom, the rest of the boxes in Kate's old room, the Avon and house decorations in the breezeway, and the garage. Then I want to organize the Christmas stuff for him and purge that too. In the midst of this I'm hoping that Kevin cleans up his current room, which he doesn't even live in anymore. I'll give him and Dad a while to work that out and then I plan on that being the last thing I touch if it's not done by Kev, probably in the fall.

It's so daunting when I realize what's left to do. But I also realize that we've made huge progress and Dad appreciates each time we send so much crap out to the trash. A dumpster would have made more sense but no one has the time to commit to filling a dumpster quickly. So Dad and I whittle it away and make it more bearable each time.

The stuff isn't that hard to go through but you find these things that stop you in your tracks. Pictures tucked away in boxes that are filled with other stuff, mementos from childhood activities, an I love you Mom book that someone made when they were five or six years old. Report cards from all of us. Newspaper clippings from high school honor roll. Family trees. It's enough to handle it in small chunks of time. I don't think I could take it more than that.