50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER – The Clutter and the Memories

By Eloise Graham

Last month, 50+ Lifestyles featured an article from the University of Illinois Extension about de-cluttering. I decided I would try some of their suggestions as some of my resolutions for housekeeping. So, I would start here, then I would go over there, but on the way to that chore I had to do something else – soon I realized that I had ADCD.

Before long, I realized I was in a whirlwind of a diabolical maze of clutter. But, I had to start somewhere. So I dug in to the first pile I came to. I came across a Valentine card from 1947 that was sent to me by my cousins.

Gee, what else could be in this pile of memorabilia? I found cards from 50 years ago, not the romantic Victorian style, but those slender comic ones that were the “in” thing in the 1960s. That brought back a lot of memories that had not surfaced for ages… great memories, but did nothing for the clutter or cleaning.

Then, I remembered the grade school Valentine parties. In class, we would make construction paper boxes, or big envelopes and place on the backs of the chairs to collect the cards from all of our classmates. Then, we would make our Valentine cards out of red or pink paper, decorate with crayons and lace and maybe heart stickers to give to our classmates. Do you have school or childhood memories like this?

I don’t remember store bought valentines until quite a bit later. Our children had the store bought ones. Bright colors, racecars, tractors, monsters, silly animals… not quite the way I remembered childhood Valentines. But things evolve from generation to generation.

Well, back to the de-cluttering…. I think it will take me a while! If you missed the de-cluttering article from last month you can find it by going to www.50pluslife.com and typing in “Simplify Your Life by De-Cluttering” in the ‘SEARCH’ box.