This year, possibly spurred on by the overwhelming vision of my grandmother’s closet with its hundreds of hats and shoes and evening gowns (which we encountered head-on during our Christmas vacation, in the Wisconsin leg of our trip), my husband decided that we needed to repeat last year’s purging exercise.
And did I say “closet” up there? Because I meant closets.
Plural.
(there’s Heidi’s foot–see it?–disappearing into what appeared to be a wall of scarves; more clothes lie behind)
In fact, in Mama Kitty’s case it may be closetssssss (double squared plural). You’ll only know what I’m talking about if you’ve been there in person and experienced the fashion explosions happening all over the house.
Like the hats in the front hall, which represent not even a fraction of the headgear you will encounter as you wander through the house.
Just to give you a little insight into the Mad Hatter Wonderland of my grandparents’ eccentric and treasure-filled house, there’s even a mannequin in a bathtub in the livingroom.
And a mannequin by the mantel.
And that’s just the livingroom, folks. You don’t want to see the basement. I repeat–you don’t want to see the basement.
Or maybe you do.
Okay, fine.
Here’s the basement.
My husband is exclaiming in bewilderment–possibly something like “What kind of family did I marry into??”
Of course, he’s over 6 years late asking that question.
There comes a point where it’s futile to even ask.
But because I’m all about getting to the bottom of things, I’ll spill the beans. The answer is: you married into a family whose pater familias (Big Jake) has stocked the basement with enough food to feed the entire family for 1 year.
I know where I’ll be if the zombocalypse I’ve been hearing about ever breaks loose: feeding on cans of evaporated milk, popcorn, beans, and dented cans of clam chowder in the basement.
Of course, if the zombies learn how to access the internet, they may be able to track me down based on that disclosure. But then again, I’ve always liked living on the edge.
But I digress! (big time) Remember–exactly one year ago–the 111 things in 1/11 project that my friend Jenny initiated? It all started here . . .
. . . continued here with the emotional roller coaster of clearing out old college papers . . .
. . . and here with the trashing of my beloved but holey lamb socks (among others) . . .
. . . and finally here, with a clean-out of old make-up and defunct cassette tapes.
All in all, I ended up getting rid of about 120 things that I totally didn’t need. Whoopee!
So this year we will purge again! And we’re both looking forward to it. After experiencing a certain degree of materialism in the air during the holidays (if you know what I mean), we felt the need to rid ourselves immediately of as much stuff as possible. Old VHS tapes (those are so last-century), unused kitchen paraphenalia, paper files that are just taking up space, etc. I may even attack my jewelry drawer again, which is once more a tangled, mangled mess.
If any of you would like to engage in this exercise along with me this month, please send me the links to your posts, and I’ll link to your blogs as I write about our whirlwind of de-stuffifying!
It’s going to be satisfying, cleansing, and probably full of silliness.
Love,
Purging Petronilla
Grandmothers really do have so much ridiculousness going on in their basements, dont’ they!?!?!?
I loved reading about your purging 2011…and I can’t wait to see what treasures you unearth in 2012!
I’ll be joining you with this in my blog with the idea being inspired by you from last year. Today is my last day away from home (because of some temporary job Josh & I had), so I can start…tomorrow! Yay!
Great! That’s awesome, Layla! I’m looking forward to reading about your purging adventure!
What’s with the creepy mannequins? EEK!
You have inspired me. How did you know I have two drawers filled with dried up mascaras and lip glosses?
Your grandmother is fantastic! But mannequins kind of creep me out so when you said “you don’t want to see the basement” I thought maybe I actually didn’t because it might be full of them! haha I think January is the perfect time to purge so good luck 🙂
Yeah, the mannequins are a little eery. But they make for a great, slightly unnerving photograph!
you are hereby awarded “Coolest Grandma of the Year award”! Embrace her creativity.
you ‘re a lucky girl!
I accept the award! She’s a very cool grandma, and I know I’m so blessed!
I’ll join you! I don’t have the time or mental capacity to organize this because of a certain little someone, but i have time to clear some stuff out! 🙂
Yay! The original “founder of the feast”!
And your little guy is SO CUTE! I can’t wait to see and hear more about him and your new family life!
Jenna, what a great idea! Yikes — those are quite the mannequins. Purging what we don’t need sounds delightful and I hope to soon start a project like that of my own. (Love your blog, by the way!)
Hi Sarah! Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you post about this project so that I can link to you!
I actually started today! I’ll probably put up a post when I reach 112 things, and I will be sure to let you know when I do! Fantastic encouragement.
Nice! You are so on top of this already–I’m impressed.
Post is up! Happy to share:
http://sarahkocischeilz.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/how-i-got-rid-of-112-things/
Awesome! I’ll link to you in my post this Thursday!
I have bags of stuff that needs to get out of my house. Thanks to your inspiration, it WILL happen this week!
I always tease my husband about being a pack rat but, looking through closets, cupboards and drawers lately, I find I’ve been doing the same. I was thinking of cleaning during the weekend but, went on with other stuff. Now, I think I actually want to join in and fill a few bags that can go. Plus, I could really use the room!
Hi Jenna:
we will join your movement on Feb, because I have 2 classes in winter session. We have so many clothes and toys that hand me down to us. I don’t need to do laundry for 2 weeks for Joshie, and he still has clothes to wear! I will let you know how that goes! And Maybe maybe….I will save some for you 😛
Sounds great, Eve! =)
Food for thought:
What if in addition to purging 112 items, everyone chose to NOT ACQUIRE 112 things over the course of the year?!
That might make the Clutter Monster (that so affects us Americans) have less influence over us!! I must confess, however, that when the beautiful wrapping paper was on ridiculous sale at Shopko, I bought a bunch for next Christmas!
Mom, I like the “get something, purge something” deal that I’ve been following for the past year with my closet. If a new clothing item comes in at any point during the year, another goes out. If we followed that principle with everything, clutter would never take over!
I like where your mind is. =)
wow…. impressive mannequins. your grandma must be so fun!
I loved when you did this last year. We have been doing it all year – and it continues! When we come across a lot of something [clothes] or something large [bed frame/lamps/computers] we call our local chapter of the Lupus Foundation [you can google if you like] and they will set up an appointment to come out and pick it up for free! No more wasted trips to Goodwill [save gas $$] and it goes to an equally worthy cause.
Thursdays are my donate days so I will be channeling you that day. heehee
Sooo many laughs here! I’m pretty sure we have a distant family connection because your grandparents house reminds me a lot of my own parents’ house. The beautiful border-hoarding, and especially the evil basement with enough canned good to live off of for years–totally my parents! I got a little creeped by the mannequins though, and the picture of your granny in her fur bikini. As Jim Carey in Liar Liar said, “Deleted!” (from my memory. If only our families would jump on the purging bandwagon, right? Well, I am totally on board but probably won’t be blogging it. I look forward to your future posts about it. And BTW, I have decided that you CAN’T henna your hair. It’s too pretty in it’s natural state. Maybe when the grays creep in I will give you permission. 😉 Also, your hair is getting so long!! You totally have to try this sock bun thing b/c my hair is too short for it (yes, my logic is that since I can’t do it and am dying to, I must find a friend with long hair to do it in my stead): http://aspottedpony.com/for-moms/how-to-use-a-sock-to-get-beautiful-curly-hair-without-heat/1517/
Loving the look of that sock bun. I need to give it a try–the problem is my hair is SO THIN! I just looked at the post, and I’m about to read it in more detail, because it looks so great on that girl’s hair.
Oops, the parentheses was supposed to encompass “from my memory” but I never put the end cap on it.
Oh yeah, and actually I did try the sock bun. It was a disaster for me b/c my shorter hairs just would not stay in the bun and ended up getting all weird while I slept–not nice and curly at all. Start with this one and click through to the next three pictures to witness the royal mess: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150498656001480.414732.541706479&type=3
I think your sock bun looks great! Except for the frizzies–which could totally be calmed with a little hair spray!
UPDATE: When I first replied to you, I thought the sock bun WAS the point (not the curly hair) because it looks so cool! But after watching the video, everything makes sense. And your “curls” did turn out kind of . . . .well, funny. =) Anyway, I did the sock bun last night!! And this morning I’m sporting gracefully curly locks–THANK YOU!!! I’m so glad you sent me the link, because I love this new and easy way of doing my hair. Whooppeee!
I’m so tickled that it worked for you. Gives me hope for future longer tresses, which area also thin, btw, so I think it would be nice to beef up the volume!
Jenna, this post was another delightful glimpse into what makes you “you!” So far, my closet is still relatively organized (thanks to you) and I don’t have a lot of extraneous stuff lying about to “purge” — although your Grandma’s mannequin in the bathtub “art” tickled me greatly, so I’ll have to keep myself in check. 🙂 Will enjoy seeing your project in progress in 2012!
Awesome idea! I’m planning to purge my little apt this weekend.
If I post next week, will I be too late to be included in your linkage?
No, you’ll be great! Just send me the link and I’ll include it in my post–I plan on posting once next week and another time the following week.
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