Wednesday, September 10, 2008

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO . . .

Deanna and I were talking about why we have a difficult time letting go of old craft supplies, fabric, craft books, patterns, and magazines. We say we need to de-clutter and rid ourselves of the things we no longer use and those are good thoughts, but....
1) We remain in the mindset that we might one day USE or NEED these things. After all, we liked them enough to buy them, didn't we? To get rid of them now would seem to imply we made errors in judgement when we bought them in the first place.
2) We can't bear to think we wasted all the things we collected through the years and it would seem that we had squandered hard-earned money if we didn't save those things and use them at SOMEtime in our lives - at least that's what we tell ourselves.
3) We've been known as crafters for most of our adult lives. We feel we're letting parts of ourselves go when we give away things we've held dear for so long. (We think THIS is the main reason we hold onto so much stuff.) We feel as if we're closing chapters in our lives and shutting the doors on our creative selves.
Perhaps none of the above is true, but it's how we feel. It does seem logical that we'd still be able to make things if we chose to do so, even if we've lessened our load of excess supplies. But, collecting fabric, patterns, and idea books has been part of our lives for decades and we think we are now mourning our former selves - the crafters who participated in shows, searched for treasures at thrift shops, and couldn't wait to work on projects when waking in the mornings.
Our perceptions have changed through the years. We have as many "things" in our lives as we could possibly ever need and we're weary of dealing with all the craft "stuff" around us. We're not nearly as excited about making things as we used to be, and that is probably a very natural progression, but it doesn't feel natural to us.
We're grandmothers now and we're more interested in being part of our grandkids' lives, being there if or when needed for our adult kids, and trying to make our lives and our homes peaceful places to be, which is why we need to de-clutter in the first place. We're tired of having our projects and supplies strewn all over the place as we craft. We're tired of storing supplies in boxes where we often forget what we have.
What we think is an even bigger problem, is the fact we seem to be fighting the changes in our lives because we don't know what's next for us. Which road should we take now? We used to know who we were. We were crafters and we defined our lives by that fact. So who are we now and who will we be if we don't collect stuff and make things?
That is why we think we're hanging onto things so much. We're changing, but we're not quite ready to take a leap of faith and move on the next thing. We don't even KNOW what the next thing is supposed to be. Obviously, there is some fear of the unknown.
It might simply be the aging process that's causing all this angst, but whatever it is, we wish we could stop feeling old and used up, and start seeing the new road that lies ahead.

2 comments:

Debra said...

Oh My word- what a wonderful box of fabrics! Some wonderful things are going to come from those!

Kady said...

Thank you Debra. Those had been stored in a drawer in my guest bedroom until I viewed a short video (provided by P&R) about folding fabric differently and displaying it. It was a no-brainer! So now I fold fabric as I find it in drawers, boxses, and totes. I feel more inspired when I can actually SEE what I have!

Kady