Kitchen Diaries: The Clean-Out

Everyone has a space that gathers stuff; old toys- old jars, stuffed animals, suitcases.  Things that gather dust, or we think have disappeared.  Ours is a crawl space on the same level as our freezer, and as part of prepping for our kitchen renovations we cleaned it all out.

We found a little of everything; toys I played with when I was a kid, a plastic fisher price clock, with numbered pieces Disney puzzles I've done a million times.   Dolls I played dress-up with; I had one I called baby- and I remember playing with one of my cousins when we were young and she'd say the rhyme: "Mama had a baby and her head popped off".  And then she popped it off; I bawled my eyes out I was so upset.  There was even a plastic  tea set, and mega blocks.

We found boxes upon boxes of old jars. I think my mother kept every jar since we moved in here in 1987.  She opened one that was a "Hershey's chocolate sauce," and I could still smell the chocolate; it's probably at least 15 years old.  It makes you wonder how much sugar, and preservatives are in that stuff.   Most of the jars were thrown out.

The toys, and dolls are a different story.  A lot of them went to Salvation Army, and I had such a weird reaction.  The more adult part of my was able to say "when I have kids, I can get new toys.  Why shouldn't someone else be able to fun with these?" But I was reluctant part with a lot of it. 

I changed my mind so many times about the mega-blocks and the tea set. "But they're mine," I thought.  "What if I have kids?" I thought.  It was the pull of them; so many happy memories having tea with the tea set.  It was the realization that life was easier as a kid.  And boy does Fisher Price make durable toys. The mega-blocks, and tea set were joined by the light brite and given to charity. 

And we now have a crawl space that looks more like we're moving out instead of having renovations done.  A good thing too; our cabinets, and counter tops have arrived this week filling our garage.  The contractor is probably coming to start our downstairs bathroom soon.