As I work with a client helping her organize and clean out her home office, I keep saying, “If you love it, let’s use it and interact with it!”
Everyone has an area in their lives like this; she isn’t the only one! You are saving the things you have deemed special until the right moment to use them. The most common one is fine china, only used for special occasions. If you look hard enough around your house, you’ll also see where you have done this.
I’m not saying this is good or bad. I want you to understand that the moment is now to use the things you cherish. You are alive. You are in this moment, so use what you love.
I have a vase that I absolutely cherish. If anything were to ever happen to it, I would sob, like an ugly cry sob. I would be heartbroken. My childhood private singing teacher gave it to me as a wedding gift for my first marriage. I adored this woman and looked up to her. I wanted to emulate her style and way of living. She gave me guidance beyond voice lessons, for which I will forever be thankful. This case represents her love for me. She gave me the vase three months before the wedding because she was diagnosed with brain cancer and was unsure of whether she would make it to the wedding. She didn’t. Knowing that she was the one who picked out this vase for me meant so much.
For a very long time, it was one of the most expensive things I owned and the nicest. I was scared to use it for fear of it breaking. What it represents in my mind is my singing teacher and her love for me, but in reality, it’s a large crystal vase. If I use it and make it a part of my home, I show the people in my life that I cherish it and that it is special.
My children know the story of the vase, but their memories will be so different. They might recall the stories I tend to tell as I pull it out of the kitchen cupboard about my voice teacher and childhood. But in truth, they will most likely remember it as the vase mom always put flowers in when she received fresh flowers. And that is why it will be memorable and will live on.
So rather than storing the memories of your relatives in boxes in the attic, use those artifacts in your daily life. Use the pottery that your husband made to store office supplies and your grandmother’s knitting basket to hold your mail. Use the things you genuinely cherish, and interact with them so that when people come into your home, they can see what you hold dear.
PS- We will discuss the purging of things later because not everything you own can be “special.” Some things need to go. 🙂