I have been on a roll. I cleared out the extraneous serving plates, and surplus tablecloths. Cookie cutters that are cute but haven't touched dough in five years, duplicates on potato mashers and slicing knives, games that have not been played since Bush was in office all got demoted to the give away pile. I even did the unthinkable and gave away a stack of quilts. John was aghast when we drove to the thrift store to hand over the loot.
"Lori! What has gotten into you? You made these quilts!"
"But I have more than I can use, and they may get more appreciation in other homes."
Working at the thrift store that day was the Repurpose King, sanding a slab of abandoned cherry wood to be given new life as a table. He overheard the kerfuffle between John and I.
"Happens at our house too. I am a hoarder and she is Feng Shui." His yard is an ongoing art show of mobiles crafted from cymbals, crystals, bells, orphaned utensils and steel rods. He made a wind chime out of sprung springs and great grates. There is a metal skeleton inside a cage with the keys just out of reach, and a mask of Zeus. But his wife likes her space to be airy and replete with chi.
Why is it that two people can have such different takes on something as mundane as the inhabitants of the cupboards? There is actually a part of me that is as eager to hang on to stuff as John is. I routinely win at the game called "Name as many uses for a cardboard box as you can in 60 seconds." Forty three by the way. But when I cannot find the hand blown blue glass vase I love because it is surrounded by a bevy of mediocre clear ones I am meh about, it is time to take stock. In fact the whole avalanche of reorganization started when a friend came to borrow a marriage book and I could not find it on the disheveled shelves.
There are other fronts where John and I part company. He likes to save money and buy in bulk. I am more inclined to buy organic and in smaller batches. He tends to write best at midnight, while I leap out of bed with the sun. Neither of us is all right or all wrong, but it does leave room for disagreements if we let it.
I notice the Repurpose King and his serene wife are still married after forty some years. I also notice that the part of her house where she does yoga reflects her love of simplicity while the stream where he hangs art is more... embellished.
