Reflections on a Clean Basement

One of my favorite things in the world is sleeping-in on the weekends.  Mom apparently believed that kids who slept-in were damning their souls to eternal hell; she made sure she sang out, "Good morning, Mary Sunshine!!" or "Rise and shine!"  no later than 9am on Saturday mornings, which is why I'm sure she was proud of me today when I showed up on her doorstep at 9am, ready to tackle the basement. Six hours later, my sister Mary and I had finished half of the basement, had a few large bags of garbage stacked outside, and our vehicles full to the brim of stuff Mom was finally willing to part with.  Here follows some observations from the experience:



***If cobwebs were spun gold, my mom would have been a billionaire. I say "would have been," because they re not worth a dime, and they are no longer; I am personally responsible for destroying the habitat of a bajillion spiders in Mom's basement. (I hope I don't have nightmares.)

***Poor Mom-Having been born during the Great Depression, she can't throw a thing away that's of potential use down the road.  Consequently, she saves everything from used sandwich bags to yogurt cups. (On the bright side, many a grateful teacher has received pinecones, used greeting cards, toilet paper tubes, and yarn scraps.)

***Confession: I sometimes pretend to need empty butter tubs, ice cream buckets, coffee cans or yogurt containers, just so Mom will offer hers up. (She's very generous.)

***Mom's also the best person to see if you need a can-can skirt, chicken hat, Elvis wig, or any number of other odd get-ups. She is the master of costuming and has the clutter to prove it.

***Even seeds do not go to waste at Mom's house. (She has an incredibly green thumb.) She has enough trumpet vine seeds to create her own rainforest. (Want some?) [Click here to see Mom's trumpet vine in all its glory.]

***It is a great blessing to have so many siblings to help with the Big Clean at Mom's. The guys sided the garage this week, Michelle made the windows sparkle and dusted (no small feat!), and Jim organized the "workshop" in the basement today.

***I was going to drop my load of junk of at St. Vincent DePaul, but that is Mom's favorite place to shop, and she has been known to have second thoughts and buy her stuff back, so I went out of my way to take it to Goodwill, instead. (I hope Mom doesn't know about that store.)

***The biggest part of the basement job left is this....

Anyone want to help sort/organize 64 year's worth of Christmas decorations?