Hang onto history
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday March 22, 2011
I planned my attack, waiting for a time when the kids would be out of the house for a few hours.I held a roll of heavyduty plastic bags, ready for the underhanded task I was about to perform.I finally had the toy room to myself and I was ready to let rip. Decluttering is the polite term for what I was about to do. More bluntly, I intended to chuck out some of the kids‚„ broken and unloved toys without telling them.The result, I hoped, would be a stark interior where every knick-knack, that was played with at least twice a year, was concealed in a drawer or storage cube.I had the means and the opportunity to transform the junkyard of dolly limbs, blunt pencils, depleted batteries, pieces of car tracks and stray Lego bits, into an uncluttered haven.I would have the only say in what stayed and what went.There was no little voice in the room saying: ‚“But grandma gave me that for my second birthday‚¯, and no-one to give any false hope: ‚“There‚„s the leg off my Transformer - now I can build it‚¯.But what should have been a moment of jubilation (‚“hey, there‚„s the spare TV underneath that pile of dress-ups‚¯) was, in fact, stomach churning. The job too onerous for this softy.Who was I to say that the hand-knitted rabbit, stained and missing its legs, was no longer valuable to my child? Was it really the right decision to give away a train set, and all its accessories which took years to collect, just because my son had outgrown it?We live in a consumerist society where in order to keep updating and accumulating we need to keep constantly throwing out. Out with the old, in with the new.As parents we can‚„t keep everything for our kids.Yet there is, I think, an obligation to keep some of the items that mark the milestones. First pair of shoes, cute baby outfit, first tooth, sporting trophies, etc.A friend, soon to turn 40, holds dear the 1970s Little People playset, that her mum kindly stored for her over many decades. It‚„s still in good condition and has regained its status as a family favourite - this time around enjoyed by her kids.Perhaps we need to think twice before eying-off something for the bin and maybe take a fresh look at the wonderful art and craft that comes home at the end of the day in the preschool and school bags.I lost my nerve that day in the toy room. I waited for the kids to come home and then asked them to help me with the clean-up. We ended up throwing out a lot less than what I intended.It‚„s true that our cupboards and drawers are bursting with ‚“milestone‚¯ items. Our interior will never be featured in a chic magazine but there is comfort in knowing those hoarded treasures are there to pick up and cherish some day.Louise Turk
Ā© 2011 Illawarra Mercury
