Is This You? How Fresh is Fresh?

I am one of those silly people who over my lifetime have really enjoyed knick-knacks. I am not that person too much anymore. But! Yes, a dusty knick-knacked “but.” I am still drawn to things with sayings on them that fit my life.

I admit I no longer wear the “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila FLOOR,” message emblazoned across a t-shirt. Well, okay I do have one of those, it’s only worn around the house now. We have all at one time or another seen a plaque or a poster with just the right saying on it. I have a four-sided one with the seasons spelled out on each side. I have had it on Summer for the past three years. I even went so far as to put sticky notes on the other three sides. Autum now has a note that reads, “NOOOOOO!” Winter’s notes relays, “Oh HE** NOOOO!” Spring’s sticky note/sign is “COME ON ALREADY!” But summer is just good ole summer. Oh how I wish summer would last for 11 months. Hey, I know we need the water. I would give up one month of summer to let the snow fall for 30 days – call that winter. Then? It’s outta here!!

Recently I needed to freshen up my attitude so I found the block of wood I bought some time ago and I put it out to look at and get the feel of it. The gray-painted block is 4” X 4” and about 7 inches long. On all four sides there are a few words of attitude boost. The side showing now remarks, “Every day is a fresh start.” Okay here’s the story.

If you are in a place where you don’t need a fresh start, I would bet a nickel that you are there because you recently embarked on a fresh start. Could be a new job, a new spouse, a new belief. But a fresh start has given you a bump. It’s like having spring cleaning in your mind. Clear out the cob webs and old hurts and pains and start a fresh batch of life. That’s where I seem to be. Now, though, I am wondering; how fresh is fresh?

I was once told that it took so long to dust my house because I had so much stuff on every flat surface. So, you know that 30 days of winter I want and spoke of up above? I will endeavor during MY winter, to freshen up and find my missing flat spots again. It’s not like I am a hoarder. I am not afraid of open spaces. Good thing because my nearest neighbor is a goodly hike away.

Just every so often, don’t you just want to take your arm and wipe everything away and start fresh? Just to be able to feel like you can swing a dead cat and not hit all the things that accumulate – letting room after room, flat space after flat space, under counters and overhead spaces start to close in on you. 

Ah, then it happens. We screw up and get courageous and jump into the task of uncluttering. Snap, the trap is sprung. Oh My Stars! To throw out or to save? Throw away forever, take “it” to the dump and get rid of, really get rid of things. Or have a spot for the out-of-the-house but not out-of-your-life stuff. Savable things. Save as in store away. In a box in the garage or storage unit and pay someone to store your stuff.

Not sure how many times I have had someone tell me, ‘If you store something and haven’t looked for or at it for over a year, throw it out.’ Shoot, I have boxes of things I haven’t looked at since the last quarter of the last century! I may need that set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias or that Ripple wine bottle covered with melted candle wax. Hey don’t judge me! 

All those treasures were “fresh” once. But now they are in the, “how fresh is fresh” side of the “throw or keep” lists. It will take strength, fortitude and a HUGE box of HUGE garbage bags. I can do this. I can throw away sign after sign after sign that talks about my virtual ducks in a row that I can’t keep in line, how “I Can’t Adult Today.” 

I can’t toss my favorite though. A little sign that I got for a friend the Christmas just before she passed away. A chicken painted on it that reads, “Sometimes you just have to say, ‘Cluck It’ and walk away.” Yes, I brought it back home with me after she died. It will always be fresh enough.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at [email protected]

Really!