The Art Cabinet

For years the idea of ‘cleaning out’ has been a huge desire but overwhelming thought. We have so much stuff!  Of course, Steve and I both have said that it is part of how we will cope during ’empty nesting’.  If nesting is a time to acquire, make cozy and create a home…empty nesting is a time to clean out clutter and make more space and time for other things. In an attempt to make this task more manageable and palatable, I have been taking on small areas where I can clean out, throw out and organize a drawer, cabinet, corner in a relatively short time…under an hour.

The art cabinet is something we bought when the boyz were small to house the obvious – crayons, colored pencils, paper of all kinds, markers, craft materials, tape, etc. It is where they went when they made cards …they made their own construction paper cards until they were 16 or so. Then I realized – oh yeah, they maybe should send something a tad more sophisticated now  :-0 – especially for thank you notes.  In later years the cabinet has also been home to extra school supplies and some wrapping supplies.

Just a bit of a mess has accumulated!

While I did accomplish my goal of ‘cleaning out’….we have a big bag of things my great niece and nephew might like (oh how happy my niece will be to have more stuff in her house ;)…we have a big bag of things for Steve to take to school for students – binders, looseleaf etc…I was not prepared for the emotions that came with this project.

Crafts, cards, crayons…oh my!

In the midst of pulling all the contents of the cabinet out into a pile on the floor, I felt a huge wave of nostalgia and sadness wash over me. Casey was home for the weekend so I did not expect to be in a mode of missing the boyz. Plus this cabinet is not home to their past art projects or school work (we have bins for that downstairs that I now do not want to go near!) so I just did not think I would go down memory lane. But just seeing their pencil cases with the supplies still in them, some old notebooks with names on the front, and the many half pieces of construction paper as they make cards with only half of the sheet, all brought the memories so close. How many times did we say – ‘go get that from the art cabinet’…’that is in the art cabinet’….’please clean up and put it back in the art cabinet’?  I missed those times. It was also a rainy, dreary day which brought a memory of us all being home, doing crafts, making cards…the boyz running around the house with no thought of going anywhere else, for where else was there to go unless it was with Mom and Pop? There is a simplicity to that time of life that I miss. Yet I also know, as my rational brain is still in check here, that it is not all rainbows and roses…it comes with a lot of care taking, stress, teaching and guiding.

After saying goodbye to the old….

Ahhhh…so much nice to access what I want or just to walk by 🙂

It was good to feel the sadness and miss the ‘old days’- even if it did not feel good in the moment.  The feeling has passed through me and now I am on the other side of it…enjoying my cleaned out space! 🙂 And both the sadness of missing the past and the enjoyment of the organization feed the love.

Many blessings,

Suzanne