I had to clean up unnecessary things that my parents had been saving up for years. It wasn’t easy. But this is a story about how we free our lives while maintaining a relationship.
One evening a friend called me. “The time has come,” she sobbed into the receiver and disconnected. I grabbed my jacket and dashed towards it. We agreed long ago that as soon as she is ready to cross the threshold of her parents’ apartment to start cleaning there, she will call me. And, apparently, the time has really come.
Her parents died a little over a year ago, but my friend still could not bring herself to return to her father’s house: “You see, everything there reminds me of my mother and those happy days when my father taught me to resist difficulties. Besides, there are after all their things, what can I do with them? ” Of course, I offered her my help, because together it would be easier to sort out the piles of things that had been accumulating for years in a tiny apartment, but she still refused.
When I arrived, my friend, leaning against the wall in the hallway, was holding a photo album in her hands and lovingly shaking off the dust from the yellowed photographs. “You know, my parents were avid travelers, they couldn’t stay at home for a day. We have accumulated a lot of interesting things, memorable souvenirs and, of course, pictures that they brought from different countries. And those gloves? Mom loved them so much. If it were my will, I would leave every thing, but, alas, I cannot. ” I looked around the apartment, which had fallen into disrepair after the owners were gone, and slowly nodded. No, I, of course, understand that memory is above all, but there is nowhere even to stand because of the large number of memorable, but already old and unnecessary things. It is necessary to vacate the apartment as soon as possible in order to breathe life into it and fill it with energy.
After weighing the pros and cons, she decisively dialed the handymen, who agreed to take out the trash as soon as we sort it out. The most difficult part remains. Garbage bags lay in an armful on the floor, into which it was necessary to send valuable moments in the lives of people who were no longer there. We sorted things neatly into different heaps, leaving behind art, jewelry, books and paintings. The rest, according to her friend, was not so saturated with memories, and it could be safely removed. She looked through every thing, neatly folded clothes and, with tears in her eyes, put them in boxes. I left myself only a few accessories that will remind her of her mother.
Having laid out everything else in the trash bags and boxes, the friend carefully checked everything again. “You know, I realized that all these things only steal valuable space and prevent you from freely moving around the apartment. And my parents will forever remain in my heart, regardless of whether there is all this rubbish or only bare walls are left, ”- sending the last Chinese vase in a bag, her friend put the rubbish outside the threshold with a decisive gesture. And really, why surround yourself with unnecessary trash, convincing yourself that it reminds you of your loved ones. In fact, these are just excuses and unwillingness to take responsibility and sort out the really important from the secondary.
By the way, she made only cosmetic repairs, leaving some memories of the place where her carefree childhood passed. But we must admit that after such a global cleaning, the room seemed to become larger and no longer resembled a gloomy warehouse of forgotten things.