Holding on / Letting go

If my summer has a theme, it would be simplifying. Decluttering. Letting go.

My sons have both grown into men (sizewise – in the official sizing of the world, they are men) and they did this during the last school year.

So – there were drawers to be gone through. Pants, and shirts, and shoes, to be discarded. In some cases, pants I was keeping for the younger one, which he had grown right through being able to wear.

We also – in a first-time ever occurrence – emptied school bags during the first week of summer vacation. What a concept to find, and wash, the gym clothes used all year long as soon as they came home from school, instead of giving them an extra couple of (hot) months to fester, and finally washing them in August …

The kids have been on the island with their grandparents for the last week, and before you think my husband and I have been partying on the Hull strip every night, we took the time to completely empty and re-paint our bedroom, as well as refinishing our entire bedroom set – chest of drawers, bedframe, bedside tables. This was a HUGE job.

Because we made this effort, there are things that ARE NOT coming back into our bedroom. Some of those things are quite large. For example, there’s a chair we’re taking to the cottage.

There is also a bookshelf.

You know what that means.

Yes, there are books we need to purge.

This isn’t actually new. Over the last three years, we’ve removed three bookcases from our house. One a year. And, you know, even though the decisions can be hard in the moment, I don’t miss any of those books.

I’m getting not bad at just saying “yes” or “no.” Sometimes the way to do it is to do a comparison – like “if I keep this, then there isn’t room for that.” It pretty quickly becomes clear which one I want more.

I’m also starting to think of getting rid of books (and other stuff) as a trade off for space. I do love space. It feels good to have it. I love walking into an open, simple room. So, I think, “is keeping this book worth the space it takes up?”

Usually I can then easily get rid of said book.

There are some exceptions though. Always.

And here is one of mine:

A lifetime of Dick Francis books …

Dick Francis. These books are old, carefully collected, often-read, and they inspired me. I loved Dick Francis’s topics – obviously the horses but, also, all the other things he examined in-depth and taught his readers about. I read about photography, hot-air ballooning, kidnap rescues, the early days of computing, glass-blowing, and much, much more.

And I loved his writing style. Granted, a re-read today reveals some politically incorrect sentences (!) but these books are pure gold.

So, they’re not going – not exactly – they’re going to the basement.

And they’re leaving me the gift of wide-open space for thinking and writing.

Nice trade-off.