Not just skeletons in there...

This past weekend I decided that I was going to go through a "cleanse" of sorts.  No, I'm not talking about one of those diets where you only eat strange mixtures of fruit and vegetable juices and eat tasteless foods, but the kind where you remove clutter from your life.  Although, I do have to admit that part of me is curious about that other kind.  I just love food too much...I'd last one day.  Anyway, we all have clutter in our lives...things that we really should let go of, but have a hard time doing so for one reason or another.  Whether it's an object or a person or even thoughts...we all have it. 

So...in my mission to cleanse, I decided to start with THE closet.  You know the one.  The one that you shove everything in.  The one that holds everything that you probably should get rid of. The one that no matter how hard you try, it's never organized.  The one that when opened, things come flying out. 

Turns out, it was a perfect place to start, and ended up being a very therapeutic exercise.  I went through every little box and found some very interesting things...

• Ticket stubs from various concerts that I've been to.  I have tried to save these over the years so I can look back and remember who I've seen and who I haven't.  One would think that I could remember such things, but I love concerts. And I go to a lot of them. And I forget who I've seen.  Case in point...some of you will remember this summer that Heidi and I went down to SLC to see Jack Johnson in concert.  I LOVE him and have been DYING to see him for several years.  Guess what I found?  Ticket stub to Jack Johnson and Ben Harper at the Idaho Center.  Yup....here I thought this summer that I was seeing him for the first time.  Not so much.    

• My baby teeth.  This was in a box of "childhood" items and as soon as I picked up the box and gave it a little shake, I had my suspicions of what it was.  Apparently they got transferred from the metal band-aid box that I found as a child and into a little jewelry box.  I love my mom for thinking that someday I might want them.  But I don't. They went in the trash.  Sorry!  I did think for one second that maybe I should pull one out and pretend to find it in my mom's lawn, but decided against it.  See previous blog entry for explanation... 

• In that same box, I found hair from my first hair cut.  I showed it to Hailee and she thought it was kind of weird to keep hair.  I agreed with her and actually said "Why would you keep hair?"  Guess what I found in another box?  Hair from Hailee's first haircut. 

• Letters and letters and more letters.  Back in the olden days before email, my friends and I wrote letters back and forth.  I still remember my Freshman year of college and checking my little mailbox in the dorm.  I loooooved getting letters from my friends and I kept every single one of them.  I read through a few the other day and all I can say is Jill, Debbie and Sibyl....I have SO MUCH dirt on you!  

I love that closet...it has so many memories tucked away in it.  Boxes and boxes of pictures, boxes of childhood items, picture frames, home decor stuff, boxes of Hailee's art, boxes of cards and boxes of some things that I should probably get rid of, but will hang onto until the next go-round.  But...I organized my clutter and I did throw away a whole bag of things that it was just time to part with.  It's amazing what a little clutter removal can do for the soul...