Take a trip through your house. Look and pay attention. What possessions are over ten years old? Thirty years – you inherited, didn’t buy. If something is 100, it can classify as an antique.
I have a theory that museums exist because of attics. I was most impressed during a tour of Mt. Vernon that the house had a box room. It could hold luggage for traveling and non-used objects of the moment. Tread of the Pioneers in Steamboat Springs has a delightful gathering of whole rooms and equipment of an earlier doctor in town. The letter signs say this came from the house of a local family…all stored in an attic.
Another important savings reason is not only did people have an accessible place to amass, they didn’t move in several lifetimes. Houses and contents were available for the next generation. Sometimes the gatherings yield treasures. Sometimes just junk. A friend received attic contents from her mother-in-law and is now dealing with out-sourcing her husband’s Cub Scout uniform and a menorah from a good Christian family.
What to do on a rainy day? Take stock. Is there another person or place waiting to love what is only put aside while in your possession? If its worth is the aura of memories more than of its monetary value, take time to write the story or make a shadow box. The palmetto leaf fan above was owned by my mother in her mid-thirties. In her nineties, sixty years and five moves later she still had it wrapped in tissue in the bottom of a dresser drawer. Maybe she wanted it available in case the a.c. failed. Someone needs to know who it belonged to and why, and what was its journey to my house.
..a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions. Luke 12:15
Or: One man’s trash is another’s treasure.
Let Me Tell Ya 