Mementos, How long will I keep you?

A week before Christmas my daughter and I started the general cleaning of our house.

General cleaning?   We have to empty  our shanty situated in the middle of the lounge room that housed all my baby paraphernalia and all the treasured mementos which  I kept away from the prying eyes of my husband. Ha, ha, ha:) Yes, I’m one of the hoarders wanna be. I collect and kept a lot of things that can be recycled. Wrappers, ribbons, cards, plastic bags, papers, boxes. Name it and  I might have it. Do you love collecting things too? What were your favorites?

As my daughter started bringing down boxes and sealed plastic bags she also pulled out an empty box which she  had written the words  ‘ Bound to East Timor  2014′. I gave her an angry look and said ‘ I’m not going to part with all my good stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a supporter of different institutions and I give away stuff that we don’t need. But there are some things that I can’t just give away. Specially when there are memories affiliated into it. Would you??

I nearly burst into crying when she said , ‘we’re all grown up and we don’t need all that crap that just been  collecting dusts and inhabiting cobwebs. Surely you’re not expecting me to use them for my future kids. There’s no way I’m going to use that. And by that time they’ll be all out of fashion.’ She rant on.

I just looked at my daughter. I was completely plastered and gobsmacked with her response.

Gone are the days that clothes and toys were pass on from one child to the other.  Maybe it just the new generation.

Hey, I still have my mom’s blouse that she gave me along time ago that was from my great auntie and is now 60 years old. I still wear it during Summer. So my daughter connotation was completely out of line.

After all the effort I made. Sleepless night I sacrifice knitting jumpers, crocheting all those hats and beanies, sewing beautiful dresses, shorts and skirts! NO, they will not be given away. It doesn’t matter if any of my future grandchildren  will not use  them. I will still keep them. Those were memories of special moments that I will treasure through all the days of my life.  It doesn’t matter if I have to make new ones. That will be another memory in the making.

Jumper I knitted for my daughter when she was five

So, NO! I will not part with my very best mementos.

YES! As of this write up: One box already left bound to East Timor...I didn’t look back..

Oh, I just finished filling up another box.  Box number two  is ready to go.

And definitely there were a lot  of souvenirs  to keep and there are a few that I can let go.

If you were given three choices of the things you can keep, which three will you choose?