Well, after spending the last hour in the basement with N.A., it seems that we have another thing in common: we are both terrific pack rats.
We had the typical things to go through. I voted to save all the religious stuff (he did not really want to), while he wanted to save all the school projects and boy scout stuff (which I wanted to chuck). Here's how it panned out:
Communion book (save). Teenage mutant ninja turtle action dolls (save....sigh). Baseball cards (save...double sigh). Binder of all emails sent to and received from previous girlfriend (toss). 8th grade school project (toss). Yearbooks (save). Microscope from 1960 (save). Boy scout handbook (save...sigh). ....and so on.
Over Christmas, my mom was prodding me to go through several boxes of old things as well, so it's not like I'm any better. (However, thanks to her ruthless yard sale skillz, Mom has gotten rid of most of the old toys and books already.) At least now I can get N.A. to help me go through them (woohoo for precedents!).
Once we have a house, I think N.A. and I are going to have to make it a yearly (or better yet, semesterly) tradition to take a half-day to try to declutter. Just imagine where our packrat tendencies could lead us once we have a little N.A. or UR! (I'm thinking only one thing here: storage unit!!)
