Well, I didn’t make much progress here this past weekend as I added more things instead of getting rid of them. I was visiting my grandmother’s house and she was considering letting an Amish woman who is leaving the order move into her home. We met the young woman (24 or 26 y/o) and I gave her a tour of the rooms upstairs. She chose my Great Aunt Alice’s old bedroom, so since Grandma can no longer go up and down the stairs I set about cleaning out the room. I actually was very successful in emptying out the drawers of the dresser, clearing out the closet, and underneath the bed.

I wasn’t successful though in that I acquired a bunch of stuff. Among my acquisitions were:

• My mother’s childhood jewelry box that contained her high school jacket letter, her sorority letter, her 4H pins, some skeleton keys, a dollar coin belt, a Christmas ornament, and some other items (eye drops, a Sears mercury battery)
• My great aunt’s jewelry box that contained around 50 school photos of the kids (including me) that had been given to her, book marks, and other stuff
• A Christian illustrated story that Grandma used back when she was teaching Bible Camp
• A copy of my cousin Debbie’s manuscript for her book of poetry
• A couple study guides that my Great Aunt Alice had written in
• A collection of framed portraits and photos of the family of a friend of the family who has passed away and whose remaining family didn’t want (including a framed certificate of recognition for perfect attendance). None of these are people I know.
• A twin framed piece of art that my cousin Travis’ mother Dolly made, though at the time I said I wanted it, I didn’t know she had made it.

Now do I really want or need any of these things, or are they just more unnecessary possessions? I actually left the bag of items in my bedroom at my parent’s house (with the exception of the manuscript), so I haven’t added to my apartment clutter, but still did I really need those items?