New Motto

Most of you know of my personal motto, "One thing in, one thing out."  That motto was a result of back to back 'breaking up housekeeping' for out parents homes in 2005 & 2006.  Both sets of parents were children of the Great Depression.  Both mothers' fathers lost the family farms due to losses in the stock market.  Both fathers left the farm, Husband's dad in 1938 or so, my dad in the mid 50's.  Both were eventually repairmen for the remainder of their working lives.  Both homes and outbuildings were crammed full of stuff.

Cleaning out Husband's parent's home of 53 years was most challenging.  Husband's folks were conservative, frugal folks.  It took about 15 months working much by himself to prepare the place for auction.  Of course I helped on days off as I could.  His folks "helped" by putting stuff away he had already sorted, etc.  There in lay the challenge.

When we cleaned out his mom's assisted living apartment, she had 14 sets of sheets in the closet.  She had only one bed left when they had moved to the apartment.  We found about 10 new towels in the closet.  The towels in her bathroom were thread bare.  The new set we had given her were made into arm covers for the used sofa.  It took three of us three days to clean out the two room apartment.  We still have stuff in our garage trying to sell or do something from Husband's parents.

Withing a year of the clean out of Husband's family homeplace, my mom required a move.  Maintaining her older home and 88 yr. old body became too much for her.  Multiple nights in a row of midnight calls for help proved to be the final straw for the closest sister to manage 40 miles away.  My folks moved into their home in October, 1961.  Even though we had cleaned out the attic 7 years earlier, this process took months for us to accomplish.  We left youngest sister with a ton of work still to be accomplished even after the move.  The day we were to return in 2006 to help with the garage sale, Husband's mom was taken to the hospital with double pneumonia.  As so many times in the past, we split our duty, me in Texas, Husband in Missouri.

This spring we began the process of downsizing our own living situation.  In the middle of all that madness is the time, once again, of my being in Texas with my mom and Husband here dealing with our house going on the market.  Eighteen days after returning home a second trip to Texas was made.  Husband and I spent 10 days with my sisters cleaning out Mom's 4 room apartment.   There is still many items in our garage to deal with from my family's stuff.

This brings me to the new motto, "One thing better not be brought into this place and get as much of this stuff gone as possible!"  That needs to be shorter.  "Nothing in, two things out."  That'll work for me.

So today I spent the time attempting to gather information about a Zuni bracelet I have.  What'cha think?  Worth anything?  Signed by "S P Boone  Zuni".