Changes. They're good, right?

It seems that my life is in a constant change of flux. I didn't used to mind it. In fact, a lot of the time I would bring it on myself. In the almost 30 years of our marriage we have moved 8 times. And we have been at our current location the longest, almost 15 years. So the reality of that is, 8 moves in 15 years! That's a lot of packing. And unpacking. Although, I know for a fact that there are boxes in the basement of this house that have never been unpacked. Wonder what that means. I hope there is nothing in there that I need!

We moved into this house when the kids were still small. Now they are grown. One has moved out. One more is on her way. One is still hanging in at home. But we have had other house mates as well. A sister in law, left a widow by the unfortunate death of my husbands oldest brother. She stayed with us for a couple of years. Then more recently, my husbands parents lived here. It seems strange to think that after years of having so many people (lets not even get into the animals!) living under this roof, we will almost be empty-nesters.

Going back to the unpacked boxes for a minute, we have also accumulated stuff from the sister in law and the parents in law. Duplicates, triplicates, in some cases quadruplicates of towels, blankets, sheets, dishes, silverware and knickknacks. Furniture, books, photo albums and pictures. What am I supposed to do with it all? And how do you make the decision to throw away someone else's stuff? There are memories attached to all of it. I guess I could pack it up for my kids and my niece. But then you are back to storing boxes of packed up stuff. Maybe every house should come with a storage unit. That way you could just put it all in there and lock the door and when you are gone, it's someone else's job to go through it all and determine what to keep and what to throw away.

We do like to collect things, don't we? Shells from a beach, shot glasses from different airports, thimbles, pictures, coffee mugs. And every time I have bought something from somewhere, I've really, really liked it. I've been so happy to bring it home and show the kids or company the souvenir from our trip. And yet a short time later, it seems to lose that luster. It becomes just another coffee mug in the cupboard along with the 30 others. And then you realize that you don't need 30 coffee mugs in the cupboard and you start weeding them out. And sad to say that a lot of the time, the one you thought was so special, ends up in a box heading for the Goodwill.

So can we make smarter choices in the things we choose to be our souvenirs? Ones that will last a lifetime without having to be packed away? I'd like to see the store that sold those!