Why Did I Keep This?

Too hot outdoors to garden, or clean the shop, or fix stuff, or anything, so I stayed indoors. I had the clean up bug, so I started going through old files. Folders of pages torn out of magazines, scraps of paper with notes pertaining to something important - once.

I read, and wonder, just why I kept that particular piece? Sometimes it is a great craft idea, so I put the page aside, to go into the folder with all those other great craft ideas that I have been hanging onto for, oh, ten or more years. Retro! Odd notes from ideas that no longer make sense have me stumped. What does  "Write cards, do mailings, and ---indecipherable scribbles." mean? The paper has no date, the ink is not faded, but green, and the last time I used green pen was........?

Pages from garden magazines with ideas galore, date back to 2002. Printed pages from emails with useless facts and jokes are dated 1997. Toss those in the recycle pile. Old receipts tossed too, no longer able to use as a tax deduction, drat.

I shake my head as there is really no explanation for some of the stuff I'm finding. I did find a few things I had been looking for (months ago), and can now send a requested article to my mother-in-law (but, will she remember she wanted it?). A note from my hubby, goes in the keep pile, as do post cards from our son, mailed to us when he was in the Army, many, many years ago.

My husband says I keep way too much stuff, and I probably do. Why do I keep grade school papers? Out they go. Old love letters? Well, I think I'll keep those, have to have a little scandal for the kids to find. "Who was he?", but after reading a few, there is no scandal, but I can see the untapped passions of youth, hidden, just waiting for the right moment to blossom. Those letters are a definite keep, maybe even something for me to read in my old age, to revive that youthful exuberance.

Bag two is filled, and I have gone through my filling cabinets. Cleaned out, sorted, and refiled. Now I have room for more.