I don't want the clean sweep people to come to my house. I like my stuff. today, I went through a lot of it - mostly the paper part. and I threw away a large bag full of papers. but I'm glad I did it by myself. I am not interested in anyone else's assessment of my stuff.
one thing I saved, for example, is a note from my friend aram, detailing a list of things he wanted me to pick up from the store in case I went into town. I love it. it's so him.
I am throwing some stuff out but mainly I need to look at what this stuff IS and move it around. I have two small filing cabinets, two drawers each, metal, one black one blue-grey. the bottom drawers of each had not been emptied out since before Nash was born. we have moved five times since then. FIVE. yes. and so I found a plastic tub of markers and crayons which had long since been crushed under the weight of other things, all of my politcal buttons from the late eighties & early nineties (my favorite of which is the one proclaiming, "half gay"), a copy of every newsletter I put together back in the 80s and early nineties, every conference flyer I ever made, every camp yearbook & mugbook I ever got, and so on and so on.
now the drawers are as such: blue top - misc. things that I am saving for pure sentimentality; blue bottom - rowe camp things; black top - files, with things like all things calendar, all things zine, all my issues of the EVI, etc.; black bottom - all camp & conference newsletters, yearbooks, mugbooks & flyers, PLUS all of my papers & exams and things from the mid to late nineties at georgia state, AND the negatives to my wedding pictures.
I was able to get rid of the HUGE box of miscellany on top of the black filing cabinet and replace it with two small boxes, one of sentimental things and one of active stuff. at least half of my sentimental keepings are photos. next stop, putting things into albums! yikes.