Older than Dirt

Confucius (or maybe Kari) says: If you keep things long enough, you will eventually need them and be forever happy that you hung onto them for time immemorial (and if you believe that, I have some really wet dry swamp land for sale). Ahem. Take the shirt I'm wearing here, for example.

shirt -- no idea (it's older than dirt)

too-tight pants -- Gap 1969

sneakers -- thrifted

This shirt is probably from the late '70s or early '80s -- give or take a few years on either side. Sheesh! Who knew that something this old would still be in vogue 30 years later?* They're everywhere these days. Even Karolina Kurkova, of all people (WHO?), was spotted wearing a plaid shirt, for heaven's sake. And now, I too, can emulate her fashion-forward style and also take part in this week's Inspiration Monday, hosted by Megan & Nora over at Two Birds -- all because I never got rid of my flannel shirts.

*Do flannel shirts ever really go out of style?

Karolina Kurkova

Darn! I forgot my blue bracelet!

It's hard work posing as a movie star*. I would set the timer on the camera, and then run (okay, a really, really slow walk was all that was needed), so I would be all posed with a smile plastered on my face before the camera took the picture. I had to decide if I should dangle my arm or put my hand on my hip. Should I look at the camera or should I look pensively off into the distance? Wear sunglasses? or go fresh faced? Decisions, decisions!

*movie star -- is that as old fashioned as it sounds? 

I save everything, and I mean everything. In fact, I still have a pair of shorts that I wore in high school, and yeah, I still wear them! (I'm proud that I can still wear them. If you're lucky, maybe I'll post a picture of me wearing them one day.) I tell people that I save things because I might need them on some future date, but honestly? It's just hard for me to cut the umbilical cord.

My kids knew that, and they took advantage of my weak will.

Me: "If you can't take care of your things -- it's going in the garbage."

My kids: Hahahahaha .... 

They'd roll their eyes, and laugh -- they'd fall on the floor holding their bellies. Okay, I'm exaggerating -- my kids were great eye-rollers, but they were much too kind to laugh at my weird way of doing things. They knew that I'd never ever follow through with my threat of throwing their treasures in the garbage.

And so, my wimpy-ness gave new meaning to the phrase, "The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak." And my flesh was so very, very weak.

My kids would make this half-hearted* attempt to clean, and then after they were in bed, I'd sneak into their room. I'd clean, and I'd resort everything and put their treasures and valuables in bags and I would box them up. And then I'd stack those boxes in the attic or the basement -- somewhere (out of sight, out of mind -- that is, until you're trying to downsize). And now, 15 and 20 years later, I have boxes and boxes stuffed full of nicely labeled pictures, clothes that were outgrown, toys that were loved and forgotten (until I pull them out of a box, that is) ... And now that I am trying to sell my house, I find myself faced with parting with all these things that have so many memories attached to them.

*They were probably as overwhelmed as I am now.

In addition to Inspiration Monday at Two Birds (see all the other Karolina look-alikes here), I'm also linking to Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style. I think my sneakers are pretty visible! Aren't they awesome?!

Do you save or do you throw away?