To Clutter or Not Clutter is the Question

As it has been a year since my retirement as an elementary principal, I have thought about decluttering the house. What is important to me will not be important to my kids. They will throw things out, I’m sure, so I may as well go ahead and declutter now. Or not!

When I retired, the staff collected money and bought me a sewing machine for quilting, which I appreciated wholeheartedly. I hadn’t had time to sew anything, especially since I was the principal. I was usually trying to catch up, as I struggled to keep up with the demands of the principal’s position. I worked as an adjunct at the local regional campus during the school year. As a lifelong learner, I was not going to sit at home rocking and watching TV. Finally, after classes were completed, I have had time to think about quilting. The local fabric store that I grew up with went out of business in March. I wondered what my options would be. I have been pleasantly surprised.

Discovering the fabric websites online has been an unexpected joy, for sure. I cannot believe the different places that sell quilt “cakes” and “fat quarters”. I even discovered a local fabric store downtown that I had no clue existed over all of these years. So, you guessed it. My clutter is growing. I keep picking up supplies that I will need for quilting, as well as many colors of fabric, since my granddaughters share their favorite colors. I seem to have the fever for this now. My maternal grandmother was a seamstress who came to the US from England. She worked in Boston and then moved to Columbus because my mother married my father, a farmer who was temporarily in the Navy, and who had moved back to Ohio to take over the family farm. My grandmother was a seamstress at a tailoring business near the Ohio State University campus, so she had the pleasure of altering the suits of greats like Woody Hayes and numerous football and basketball players who played sports there. I remember her always being excited when Woody would come in. She would relate what they had talked about, and often would bring me an autographed picture. I was a big fan of Ohio State and still am.

Anyway, I believe Grandma blessed me with her talents and love of sewing. I will be starting a quilting class in the fall. I think I can learn how to do this through trial and error, but taking classes will teach me the official way and possibly help me avoid ripping out seams. My clutter seems to have grown over the past month, but it will be worth it if my projects turn out the way I hope they will.

I still have my office things in a box with a few things scattered around the house. My educational administration diploma is still sitting in the box. I’d like to hang that up. It cost a lot, but more than that, I worked so hard through some very tough times to earn it. The bedroom/sewing room is tight quarters. I will be crawling over things pretty soon just to get to the sewing machine. Clutter is good if it has a purpose!

Later…