Opinion : The plight of a Pack Rat

Let's face it. I am sort of a pack rat.

Now as anyone that is labelled as such will tell you, we don't think we are.

My packratting is more in the kitchen gadget area, you know the things you buy, and think you will use, so you use them once and then put them in the cupboard. Or you need mint molds for graduation, can't find anyone with any, so you buy them, then there's the one time use wedding mint molds. Just for fun, you see a donut maker and think, "Wouldn't the kids have fun using this???" So you shell out your $3.88 at Goodwill and take it home, the kids Ooooo and Ahhh over it, then it goes in the cupboard until this week on donut day, it came out.

The problem with having girls that cook, besides the waistbands getting too tight, is that when they need a gadget, and you want to encourage them in whatever they do, you go and buy that springform pan, that has been used, well probably less than 10 times, and you buy a pastry cutter, and candy thermometer and all these needed tools to operate a real kitchen.

Then you complain to the husband that the kitchen cupboards aren't large enough. He then hauls probably 50 gadgets to the basement, puts them neatly on a shelf, then gets blamed for something we can't find...which is usually still in another cupboard. So far, we have only retrieved 3 or 4 things from the basement, but shhhhh, don't tell anyone.

My second weakness used to be sewing and crafting, but I gave that up when we had more than 3 kids. Somewhere in a tote in the basement is a glue gun and patterns and all kinds of fun odds and ends.

Then there is my ultimate collection. Genealogy. Now in my defense, SOMEONE needs to preserve the family history, and usually people are happy to find someone in the family that cares.

A year or so ago, we inherited a marriage certificate from Dean's great grandparents, from 1899. This week we inherited another one from the early 1900's on another side of his family, along with about 150 miscellaneous pictures from the same family. That is like Christmas to me! So much in fact, when we went to pick them up, I got so excited that I left my purse there...after all, THAT can be replaced, but not THESE treasures!

Out of the kindness of my heart, I thought, "Ya know, we have 6 kids, and I don't want ANY of them not to have these bits of history." So I started making 6 copies of everything. That soon turned into 6 file cabinets full of these treasures.

A few weeks ago, my dear husband was getting a little claustrophobic, but hey, it's his fault, he decided to move into my work space with all these things, along with my sewing machine, piano, pump organ and secretary, and all the things that make me smile, along with my 6 file cabinets that hint loudly that I need to start on labeling all the things that no one else did.

Anyway, Dean walks over to the file cabinets and asked, "What's in all of these drawers?" So I opened each one and to his credit, he agreed that no, we shouldn't throw any of it away.

So fast forward to this week.

Our 5th child decided to finish up her scrapbook in anticipation of her graduation next year.

She can't find some certificates of participation for things like the school play, and other fun things she did.

"Man, you need to start saving EVERYTHING" she says.

I smile. I laugh.

She is standing in front of my 6 file cabinets.

I tell her I will try to do better.

Dean gives me "the look" and shakes his head. He knows that collecting bits of our family history on paper, is NOT a problem.

Getting through the living/office/practice/sewing/genealogy/antique room on the other hand, could be a bit more difficult.

So now I will print this out and file it away, as another memory for my kids to find in another 20 or 30 years.