The Airing cupboard

Today I had to tackle a job I've been putting off for so long.   I've been amazed at what I've found.  It all came about by the radiator failure in my writing room.  In order to investigate this I was obliged to empty the airing cupboard.  As I have just been rooting through the huge pile of linen (and other stuff) which had been rammed into the cupboard over the years, so many memories have been flooding back to me.

Here is the cot cover my old Mum made for Erin when she was born.  I remember her crocheting this and carefully sewing it onto a beautiful pink satin background.  I can't throw that away now, can I?  So this goes onto the "pile to keep" pile.  Next, the blanket Mum later made for Erin when she graduated into her first proper bed.  "That'll make a nice throw," I say to myself as I place it on the same pile.

There's a load of sheets and duvet covers - some were given to us by family - no one likes to throw anything away.  I have bitten the bullet and binned the lot!

I couldn't bring myself to throw away the beach towel I bought the first time I went to Corsica with my eldest (now 33).  He was only 3 at the time and we have lovely memories of those hot days in the sunshine, on the beach and up in the mountains.  Neither could I lose the slightly more up to date towels we took to Ibiza - this time with my newer family of lovely husband and four more children.  That was only about seven years ago but seems like an age looking back at the photos.  Most of the kids are grown up now - so out went all the duvet covers with bunny rabbits and pink fairies.

I nearly kept the Santa's sacks - remembering the wonderful Christmas Eve's of only a few years ago when we crept around the house after midnight, trying to place each child's sacks, now filled with toys, at the ends of their beds.  Exhausting but happy times.

At the bottom of the cupboard were bags of teddies and an assortment of cuddly toys - all belonging to our daughter, Erin, who is working towards moving out this year into a student house.  I just know she won't be able to throw anything out and a part of me doesn't want to see those toys discarded.  It will seem like the final end of her childhood somehow.....

Later:

I successfully binned four sacks of stuff and the bin man has just been - so no chance to rush out and retrieve anything now.  Ho hum....  sad to throw things out - but I feel renewed.