After I finished school, I took some time to try and figure out my keen interests. Turns out that one of my strongest 'passions' involves organising - anything really - from people to piles of laundry!
At the same time, I also tend to get pretty sentimental about things... I held on to ticket stubs from school days, beginner ballet badges and even the pin that was surgically removed from my broken ankle in 2002 until just the other day! ... Okay, the pin is still in my drawer at home...
Yet, almost overnight, in an effort to find the balance between hoarding and honing, I have become quite ruthless in my sorting expeditions. Ask Mom, yes, the same Mom: she wouldn't dare let me loose on her belongings for I find great joy in filling refuse bags with anything that hasn't been used in the last 3-6 months! (Park a skip out front, leave me be for a couple of hours and I'll clear a space in no time!)
So, on the eve of my son's first birthday, with mixed emotions I filled 1 cardboard box, 1 laundry basket and 2 plastic packets with all the really baby things that I could find in our house...and I passed it on. And while even now I think about what I could've done with the soft, white blanket gifted to Jorja from her late Great-Gran Naomi or that I could still have kept the adorable little onesies that would remind me of the precious little gifts I once swaddled on the trip home from the hospital, there was just a peaceful realisation to pay it forward.
Meet Matthew: A healthy baby boy from our local Children's Home. Okay, by the looks of things it will take him a little while to fit into some of Ethan's wardrobe, but it's a better place for the clothes to be than on a waiting list as the top 40 items saved for a scrap-booking journal about Ethan's Baby Years!
Don't get me wrong - my sentimental blood runs hot and strong. I want to preserve keepsake items to share with my children for when they're older. I'm just also saying that there's a whole generation right outside of our front door that would smile as they snuggle up in my son's hardly worn socks or under-sized blankie.
Give it a thought.
The business card of a Professional Organiser, given to me by Mom in 2004...A Mother's intuition? |
At the same time, I also tend to get pretty sentimental about things... I held on to ticket stubs from school days, beginner ballet badges and even the pin that was surgically removed from my broken ankle in 2002 until just the other day! ... Okay, the pin is still in my drawer at home...
Yet, almost overnight, in an effort to find the balance between hoarding and honing, I have become quite ruthless in my sorting expeditions. Ask Mom, yes, the same Mom: she wouldn't dare let me loose on her belongings for I find great joy in filling refuse bags with anything that hasn't been used in the last 3-6 months! (Park a skip out front, leave me be for a couple of hours and I'll clear a space in no time!)
So, on the eve of my son's first birthday, with mixed emotions I filled 1 cardboard box, 1 laundry basket and 2 plastic packets with all the really baby things that I could find in our house...and I passed it on. And while even now I think about what I could've done with the soft, white blanket gifted to Jorja from her late Great-Gran Naomi or that I could still have kept the adorable little onesies that would remind me of the precious little gifts I once swaddled on the trip home from the hospital, there was just a peaceful realisation to pay it forward.
Meet Matthew: A healthy baby boy from our local Children's Home. Okay, by the looks of things it will take him a little while to fit into some of Ethan's wardrobe, but it's a better place for the clothes to be than on a waiting list as the top 40 items saved for a scrap-booking journal about Ethan's Baby Years!
Don't get me wrong - my sentimental blood runs hot and strong. I want to preserve keepsake items to share with my children for when they're older. I'm just also saying that there's a whole generation right outside of our front door that would smile as they snuggle up in my son's hardly worn socks or under-sized blankie.
Give it a thought.
Too true!!!
ReplyDelete