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Naperville
Friday, March 29, 2024

Transitions – Spring cleaning: A chance to let it go

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In Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window, the wheelchair bound protagonist (Jimmy Stewart) suspects that his neighbor has killed his wife and shipped her parts away in a trunk. Years ago, our new neighbor felt (jokingly, of course) that I suffered a similar fate after my husband made numerous trips to Salvation Army shortly after we moved in.

While in grad school we saved everything with the idea that we could use it in a future home.  When we did move from our apartment, we ended up paying movers to move things that we immediately got rid of. Among that cache was a marble slab from a bathroom being remodeled at the school where I was teaching.  We were going to make a table out of it!

Far too many Americans over consume, which results in attics, basements and garages being full to overflowing. This love for things has generated a booming business in storage units. Real estate website REJournals.com recently reported that “there are more than triple the number of self-storage facilities in the U.S. than there are McDonald’s restaurants.” It’s a $24 billion industry.

A&E has reality shows based on Storage Wars. Maybe this is an indication that Americans need to “let it go.”

We thought we had learned our lesson about keeping too many things until we had a closet system put in, and in the process of reorganizing, discovered items that were long forgotten. In addition to just plain stuff, there were my hats, in boxes—remember those? Sorry to say, I have not worn many of them in years.  Now, we’re making multiple trips to Goodwill.

I’m keeping my hats, however, in the attic, maybe they’ll come back in style.

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Barbara Blomquist
Barbara Blomquist
Barbara Blomquist is a Naperville resident, wife, mother, quilter, and screenwriter. Contact her at BWBLomquist@aol.com.

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