One family story that often gets recited during family reunions relates to my dear Big Ma, my great-grandmother, who is now unfortunately deceased. But Big Ma never threw away anything. It probably stems from her impoverished childhood where her father literally picked cotton. Big Ma was a hard worker and treasured many things given to her which resulted in her having two houses next too each other jammed packed with stuff. So when my mother and father were helping her go through items she wanted to take with her during her move to be closer to them, her famous line every time they picked up something was “That DEFINITELY has to go (with her)”. The end result was my parents having to throw away items whenever she turned her head or was distracted.
Now I am preparing to move. This is the second big move of my life. I think that on a small scale I have some of my Big Ma’s hoard-ish tendencies. It was fun going through boxes of items and reminiscing on past times. But I was kind of concerned about some of the junk I was keeping. I was more meticulous this time going through items because the idea is to downsize. But I found something tugging at me each time I went to throw something away. For instance, I found some binders full of old high school calculus assignments I completed. I remember quite vividly working on those assignments into the late evening at my parents’ kitchen table watching BET’s Comedy Central. Really I should have throw it away a long time ago. But I found it hard to do so the more I thought about the work, the time, and the satisfaction of solving the problem and receiving a good grade. Yeah, so a brotha gotta little sentimental. But ultimately I threw it away. The rule I used was if I had not touched it in the past 18 months it was time for it to go. Here is a little breakdown of some of those items.
Clothes
I have more clothes than is possibly necessary for one man sadly. My first big move I pushed myself and got rid of all clothes I had in high school. This time around it was really about purging clothing items I wore the last couple of years of college and my early post college days. I’m 30 and even if Rocawear, Sean John, and Enyce make a come back I’m sure I am not going to be their target demographic. The hard part of about it is I remember the money I spent on that crap. Hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans and shirt. None of those clothes fit then or now but that was the style to wear it a little baggy. But sadly many of those outfits were bought for a party and young Sire couldn’t be seen in the same outfit twice (so stupid).
“Jewelry”
That’s “Jewelry” in quotes because for the most part none of that junk was real. I didn’t have money like that but I was a young man in the era of BLING. I had those flashy watches you could get for $10 in Chinatown and all types of Figaro necklaces from those jewlery kiosk at the mall. The flashier and the more rhinestones the better.
Pictures
Pictures are a good thing and I kept most of them. I attended lots of parties and before inexpensive digital cameras and camera phones you bought disposal cameras. You went to the photo shop and had them developed. It was cool going through those photos. I remember the times kicking it with my fellas. Just being young and cocky, not having a care in the world. Also the pics with the ladies which usually was me with at least 2-3 I’m not sure what I was trying to project but oh well. There were lots of photos with people I couldn’t tell you their name though.
Mixed CD’s
I created a mixed CD for every occasion, road trips, parties, working out. If I had $10 in my pocket it was good way to invest my money I figured. I literally had hundreds of mixed CD’s. They were literally volumes. Let’s see there was the Bump In My Trunk vol. 1-8, Nice ‘n Slow vol. 1-4, Fog The Windows vol. 1-3, and etc. In any case you get the idea.
Oh well I got rid of the junk and everything is well organized and in it’s place at the moment. Really after purging all that crap I feel much better about myself.
@SireSpeaks
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