“Out of sight…out of mind”. It must be really true in our house after what happened this week. It would probably still be a mystery if our little granddaughter, Selah, had not “spilled the beans”.
Well, not beans exactly, but a “step” basket that my sister gave me some years ago for a birthday gift. It is one that sits on your stairs to accumulate stuff that needs to be taken up the stairs when you are headed that way. It is a very handy thing to have, if you actually use it that way. I did when I first received it, but somehow I got off track.
Lately, it held slippers on top to be grabbed when the floors were a little chilly. What was lurking below inside the basket just hibernated there silently. I just never thought about it much, and even when I moved the basket every so often to vacuum the stairs, it never occurred to me to empty it or check what was inside. It wasn’t in anyone’s way, never bothered anybody, and so there it sat. That is, until this past week when Selah was headed down the stairs. She is two years old and learning to walk down the stairs instead of crawling or sliding down on her bottom.
As she came around the landing from the top stairs, she grabbed the basket to steady herself, and down it went, spilling its contents all over the last five stairs. Fortunately she was quick to grab the hand railing, so she stayed upright and in good condition! Her siblings were here that day, and they scurried to pick up the mess. I stopped them, and told them it was O.K. After all, I thought, it is probably time to clean that basket out anyway.
Little did I know how true that was! As I started picking up folded papers, pictures, some assorted greeting cards, and even a couple gift cards, it was evident this stash had been there a really long time. When I pieced all of the clues together, I realized that it had been 2006 since I had last emptied this container! Could that be right? What in the world! My grandkids even found old pictures of themselves which made them laugh. Dan and I both found notes from our children, and cute drawings from grandchildren.
Some of the articles in that basket I absolutely did not remember ever seeing. It was a fun couple hours looking through the found treasures from yesteryear. Most of them brought a smile or a fun memory. It has been haunting me for the last few days that I had better get to the attic and begin the thorough cleaning up there that most of my kids have been urging me to do! Good grief! If it was forgotten like that right under my nose, what could possibly be up there? One thing I do know…our children do NOT want to have to do that dirty job someday on their own!
I told our kids that when I retired I would begin taking one box at a time out of the attic, go through it, laugh and cry as I remembered things, and then head to the burn barrel. With most of it at least! Old letters, cards, pictures of people they don’t even know, and things that are even from our lives as children. It is sentimental to us, but pretty meaningless to them at this point. We have lived in this same house since 1970 and raised all of our children here. So even I can’t remember what all has been preserved up there. Between the dust and some Asian Beetles, it will probably be like going on a treasure hunt. It might be a lot of cleaning and sorting though before I find anything of real value.
Yes, this spring I had better do some REAL spring cleaning! But it is kind of cold up there yet, so maybe I’ll wait until spring REALLY shows up outside. But I will have to be careful, because when the weather turns warm, it gets really hot up there. I’m thinking I have a short window of time to attack this unwanted project. I think it is like most hard jobs, getting started will be the worst!
It makes me think of David in the Psalms…”Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Help me to get going in the right direction and focus!!
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