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September 2014: Downsizing, Departures, And Sleeping With Barbie

Some things are hard to leave behind and some are easy

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Monica's baskets defy everything I've said about downsizing.  They don't link to the past, yet they are impossible for to get rid of. 

We had (and have) a lot of baskets.  I first noticed them when a pile of baskets repeatedly encroached on the hot water heater's pilot light.  For years I pushed them back, re-piled them, and complained (sometimes not so nicely) about how many we had.  The pile grew until it blocked access to the basement cabinets.  By this year the pile was waist-high and had started to spill over the wine crate and onto the basement floor proper.

When it came time to downsize, we carried the baskets in the pile into the backyard.  When the last of the pile was spread out in the yard, I was stunned to see how many we had.  Then Monica hauled out another load.  (What?!  Where did those come from?)  Turns out the basement cabinets were also full of baskets.  And the area under the back stairs.

When all the baskets were outside, they covered a third of the yard. 

Obviously, a passion for baskets on this scale cannot be tamped down by a mere need to downsize. 

Monica gave two dozen baskets to a friend -- no discernible impact.  She then took some of the lesser loved baskets and put them out in the front yard with a sign saying "Take as many as you like.   Pay what they are worth to you."  Generously, sixty baskets went this way.  (Monica was shocked that, despite the sign, some people  took baskets and didn't pay anything.  It wasn't that Monica wanted the money, it was the confronting the fact that there are non-basket lovers in the world: How could someone think a basket was worth nothing?  Do people like that actually exist?)
© Hughes Family 2012