Throw Out Thursday

It’s like Marie Kondo on steroids around here today, folks. Steve’s skipping the questions for his belongings (“Does this bring me joy?”) and just flinging them into garbage cans. Steve, it turns out, is much more unsentimental than I am, so for him there is no soul searching involved--it’s just a matter of digging out and pitching. He has a closet in his office that hasn’t been sorted in a decade, ditto an old metal file cabinet. Now that schools and camps and libraries are closed and he has no one to call to book shows, there is suddenly time to attack every nook and cranny of his Family Stages Cave-and he’s approaching the task with gusto.

I have no issue with the recycling of 20 copies of Steve’s play My Name is Lewes—indeed, I only vaguely remember the show itself. He can jettison the handwritten household budget sheets from 1992 with no objections from me, as well as the file folder marked “WFTF” --at first glance it looked like he’d labeled it with a curse (“WTF is this file folder doing here?”), but no, it stood for “Winter Family Theater Festival.” 

 It was only when we got to the personal files that I implored Mr. Trash Guy to put on the brakes. He did ask me to sort the 16 year old Christmas cards (aww, what a lovely card from the Walshes! A keeper for sure, thought I, racking my brain for some memory of who the Walshes were). So in the end I’d disposed of a mere handful of holiday greetings. 

But I’m glad I was paying attention, because across the room my hubby was poised to ditch folders containing:

 *Paperwork from Evan’s volunteer stint with Habitat for Humanity in Kenai, Alaska when he was 17 
*Flyers from random Boston restaurants and museums, souvenirs of a family trek to Massachusetts when the kids were little 
*Recipes sent to me by Philadelphia Youth Orchestra parents for the PYO cookbook I produced when Sher was in said ensemble (I accepted ALL of them, including the one beginning “Take a hunk of hamburger out of the freezer, and scrape off pieces into a skillet as it thaws”—yum!)
*Two ancient medical bills and one Social Security statement of my mom’s, circa 1997 

You get the drift. Thank the good Lord I was there to save it all!!! 

I recognize that the upside of this enforced home time is the chance to weed out our possessions, and I applaud the efforts of Stevo to weed out his. However, MUCH of the destined-for-the-dumpster stuff is technically “ours”. Like the executive branch, I have veto power and I’m not afraid to use it. 

So I’ve basically just moved our flotsam and jetsam from the office to our bedroom. Someday (perhaps during the next pandemic?) I will revisit and reassess these salvaged treasures. But for now, the score is Trash Can: 5, Elise: 6,172.

Job well done! Off to test that frozen hamburger recipe!