So then. What's in your attic?

No attic, no basement, though my last house had both. Now I've just a garage. Well, it's not full to the brim, but I've some work to do.

Attics aren't what they used to be.

I grew up in a world where family attics were filled with boxes of just-in-case odds and ends.

For example, Net Curtains were full of potential uses They could be cut up for classic butterfly nets or used as filters for craft projects or part of costumes for Halloween....ectoplasm for a haunted house...protecting picnic food from flies....doll clothes material (although challenging to sew)....

Families used to be close enough geographically for hand-me-downs including clothes that would be useful in a few years. Now cousins are elsewhere and styles, even for children of the grubby ages, change quickly.

Mobile Americans choose not to be encumbered by just-in-case.

No one hangs on to

...to...? (You left me hanging...)

I don't have anything in my attic except for insulation and some rodent turds but my basement, whoa. Exactly what you mention, for starters. I bought a whole lot of tulle from a store going out of business -- it is stuffed in a large bag and it stuffs well but there are yardsandyardsandyards of it. We made a ghost out of white tulle one year, and so far it's made a whole lot of tutus and petticoats (for humans and dolls and stuffed animals).

Plus, we've become the hand-me-down repository. My mother-in-law sends us clothes from her eldest grand-daughter, sozlet's cousin. Rather than sending them back when they're too small, she asked me to keep them (she doesn't have a basement or an attic and her garage gets overrun easily). A new girl-baby has just been born into the family (after a run of boys) and I'm going to start sending the clothes on to them. All needs to be organized first though. It's in cardboard boxes but not labeled/organized by size or age, for example.

I have my craft area in the basement, which just has a ton of stuff. Lots of ribbons. Copper foil (swiped from Caltech -- was leftover from some experiment and then was about to be tossed). Wood. Wood paint. Brushes. Beads. Wrapping paper. Vintage silk scarves. Etc., etc. too much to list. (This is nicely organized though, clear boxes on shelves, I've wanted an area like this since I was 5 or so.)

Plus two large (clear plastic) boxes filled with fabric, and my sewing machine, and notions (buttons, zippers, hooks-and-eyes, etc.)

We also have a growing but nowhere-near-complete disaster-readiness area -- jugs of water, that sort of thing.

That stuff is in my mother's attic. The attic in the garage.

I live in apartments, light and with little "stuff" in general. Don't care much for a lot of stuff. Pain in the ass!

So things go there for storage, or to die.

Mostly big stuff. Camping equipment. Lots of it. Old bikes. Old skies, balls, skates. Lots of sports equipment.

Even an old car, though that isn't in the attic. It's rotting out back with the bushes.

Squirrels nests! Oh god, that's the worry. There are no doubt many a nest up there.

Since I am the only one who will climb up, it's waiting. Should go get some of that stuff!!!

Soz--

Sorry for the dramatic caesura--my thoughts are now gone, gone with the wind.

I approve of your stash of tulle.

MP--

Eighteen years ago I made it very clear that our downsizing move to The Penultimate Home (Before Grandview Prep) meant that we were no longer the family attic.

I don't feel contrite, either.

Noddy, you reminded me of finally being rid of our son's stuff. I wonder how many years, on average, parents hang onto their kids stuff?

Some things I have kept just in case all their moving around causes a loss of a great photo or a letter or... I have told both of them what I have kept so that they can ask for it at any time, or, when I pass away, they will know that certain items from their childhood are still extant.

Diane, that reminds me of the talks I had with my mother for years after I'd left home. I always left a few things at my folks' house, and she always wanted me to take them, but I refused.

There were some things that just belonged in THAT house. Like the fancy little white dress with the blue ribbons that I wore as a flower girl in my aunt's wedding when I was four years old. It had been hanging in a certain hall closet...in the very same spot where we hung it when I took it off after that wedding...for 30 or 40 years. There were other things like that, too. They just wouldn't have the same meaning anywhere else.

Removing those things were some of the hardest moments I had when it came time to clean out the house after Mom died.

The fluffy little white dress is in a box now. It's somewhere around here, but I forget where. It really doesn't matter anymore.

Eva, I was reading an article on keeping your house clutter free--directed personally at me even though the author doesn't know me from Adam.

One of the responses was to try to not let things from a long gone relative become a talisman that prevents you from cleaning out things that only are repesentative, not actually necessary for remembrance.

After my mother died, I kept some of her clothes and shoes for at least a year in the attic. It seemed nearly sacriligeous to take them to a thrift shop or, for those things that were worn, to throw them away. She had some gorgeous shoes and I'm a shoe nut, but I would have been like Cinderella's ugly step sister, trying to squeeeeeeeze my feet into her size 5 1/2's. Finally, I finished cleaning it all out and it felt good, like a part of me was free.

Another response was one of appreciation to the poster's mother for always telling her children to feel free to throw away anything they couldn't use after her death. The woman writing said that her mother's kindness was far more important than she had ever realized , by taking away the guilt before it suddenly became very real and hard to deal with.

Isn't it strange, how superstitious we can be, for that's what it really is in the case of a loved one's death. Not in your case, because that was a little dress that belonged to you when you were a little girl and you probably knew how adorable you looked. Those are precious times and shouldn't just be let go. Just tell you son to throw it away after you've gone. (Maybe not now--he is still a little young to be thinking of death in such a practical, nonthreatening, way--Mom's still way too important.)

I still have a little tap dance costume I wore when I was around ten. I did look cute and it was a good memory. Like you, I have no idea where it is, just that I know I didn't throw it away.

Ladies--

Don't forget that an amateur theatrical company could use all those odds and ends of costumes from beloved periods.

I have neither basement nor attic. So Mr. P. has designated the garage as his own personal closet. I don't mind, except that there is so much junk in there, that we never can find anything, and are always buying duplicates of something that I just KNOW is lying at the bottom of the pile!

Diane- I have a silk pants suit that is at least 20 years old. It is a size 8, and a reminder of times when I was in better shape than what I am now. I refuse to give it away. One never knows when I will bite the bullet, go on a major league diet, and get into that damn thing!

yeah right.

DP, you old charm school drop-out, how are ya today?