I'm not even going to check to see how many years it's been. I am currently bringing books up from the basement. The books were put in boxes in the basement when we painted my room. I still don't have things the way I want them in that room, but the painting is done and the new windows have been finished. I have a murphy bed that's almost in the right place and a teak dresser that I really like.
I also have the two-tier bookcase that Grandpa B built. It had to be painted, too. It's oddly shaped and maybe not in the right place. That may be why the books stayed in the basement for as long as they did.
I brought up a handful of books from the basement and decided to donate half of them. Then, because the books in the bedroom bookcase need to be sorted before more basement books come up, I started sorting the books in the dining room book case. Not that we have a table and chairs in the dining room - what we have is a couple of desks, three sets of book cases, a filing cabinet, and some shelves.
There was a reason for shifting to the dining room book case. There really was. It wasn't just because I got distracted or gave up on the bedroom book case. It was because I decided that 1) a couple of the basement books really should go in the dining room/computer room, 2) if I was in a mood to get rid of books, that book case was really full and could use some pruning, so 3) I started sorting through the dining room book case to see what should go into the bedroom and what I could stand to do without.
I have half a box full of books to go away and a wastebasket full of papers to recycle. I also have a stack of stuff I've deliberately collected that need to find a place in my bedroom closet. Organizing always makes more work.
But the reason I'm writing is that I'm about to throw a few things out that I feel guilty about tossing. I could take pictures first, but so far they're things that I'm that stuck on.
I'll be 65 in January, so I don't really need to keep high school report cards. 1971 may sound like the olden days but I really don't need physical evidence that I once got: a B in PE, a B in trigonometry, an A in American Literature, a B in French II, and an A in Chemistry.
I'm also going to toss the Commencement 1969 program from Harbor Jr. College. Mom got her AA that year. I'm proud of her for going back and getting that. In '69 I was in junior high, so it was a good example for us.
Oh, my. Here are some clippings. Yeah, those are worth scanning and keeping the scans. They're from the 80s and older and peripheral relatives may enjoy them. So even though they're yellow, they won't be tossed until they're scanned.
Sigh. Christmas letters. I admire people who can remember what they did all year and line it up like that. I'm going to toss them, though. I'll feel really guilty, but they're going.
Found a letter from my sister that I'm going to keep. Here's her Certificate of Birth from the hospital. Don't know how I got that. Possibly from clearing out Mom's place. OMG! It's got her footprints on it and Mom's thumbprint. I'll have to send it to her. And she got a Youth Fitness Achievement Award in 1972.
There are some things from my other sister that I may send to her, too. She probably doesn't need her report cards, but there are some awards that she might like. A bunch of them were related to FFA (Future Farmers of America). Dang, that's her HS diploma.
This is how organizing gets bogged down. Mom things. Dad things. Dang - Dad's birth certificate. A hospital log printed in the Torrance Herald with my Mom's name and my date of birth. I can toss that. My HS diploma - may keep that. Retention Basin Design Standards - that can go.
The class photos from elementary school can be sent to whoever is in them. May scan them first, but I already have scans of the individual photos, so maybe not. And I have to file mine.
But that's a few more things out of the house and a whole shelf empty in the dining room book case. Sadly, there's a bunch of stuff now on my desk to be sorted and filed. Pity I don't have tomorrow off, or I could keep going. Not that I'm not going to keep going now. I'm just not going to get much else up from the basement today.
