One Box A Day

There is not much left that actually makes me speechless

But today was THAT day…
(warning📚Story time)

I’m in that #springcleaning mode cuz ya know… I am my parents child. I have always admired how organized and clutter free my mom was. Even in November, 2022 my Mom told me, “Debbie when Dad and I come back to visit you in May, pick out a room you want me to help you organize and de clutter”
Me: “Ok Mommy because every time I think I have things organized, I find more stuff and then I just get frustrated and distracted and put it away for later…”

To Debbie On Her 16th Birthday Love, Mom 1987

Well fast forward to now (3/1/2023)
My Mom is no longer with us, but I still continue to push forward and continue my own annual spring cleaning tradition and am organizing my candle studio/ home office. Im sweating in this gross humid 85 degrees in MARCH in Florida and on the way out to the curb to dump my 20th XL garbage bag of shit I no longer need because it no longer serves a purpose in my life, I stop through the garage remembering a #Tiktok hack I saw where they say take 2 things out to the trash you don’t need and throw it away everyday. So I decided to do what Mom always told me “Just go through ONE box a day and start tossing!”

In my garage I started with that box and had every intention of doing the 3 second rule when clearing it out but I stopped COLD IN MY TRACKS after I opened the box….

I was afraid I had lost these 2 most precious items!!! I hadn’t seen them In about 10 years and now that she is gone I needed to these things. The very first thing I found when opening this dusty and dirty box that earned a coveted spot on the Debs Clutter Save pile took my breath away!
It was a sterling silver and sapphires bracelet that my mother had given to me when I was a child. She told me that her Mother had given it to her and that her Gama had given it to her daughter! Neither my mom nor grandma were into jewelry so that was the only thing they held on to. What a treasure I’ve found today!

When I turned 16 in June of 1987 the best present I received was from Mom. She gave me a diary that she had filled with her hand written stories of her childhood and her siblings, and her parents.

All the way up through how she adopted me at 5months and when she married my dad and their wedding and EVERYTHING!!! She even included a cute story about her and her best friend Gennet and the times where Mom, my Aunts Charlotte, Elizabeth, Kate and Uncle Steve would have to goto Christmas Eve Midnight church service and couldn’t open their gifts until my Gama had rung the bells 🔔

As I’m reading my 16th birthday gift aloud to my own daughter right now, I’m smiling inside because that’s why she was so excited to have me and my children all together again with them this past Christmas! And by golly they all were there spending her last days together with her, on her favorite Holiday.

As for the rest of the STUFF in that one box in my garage you ask…. Well I am proud to say the rest of the stuff in that box had no meaning and thus it found it’s way to the curb!