A trip down memory lane….

After work yesterday I headed to my dad’s house to finally take care of the zillions of containers of college clothes, shoes, and random things that have piled up in his basement over the years. I grabbed a stack of garbage bags, tried to ignore the creepy basement sounds, and plugged away at the pile.

Big Sisters of Rhode Island will come to your house and pick up your donation items so you don’t have to bring them there yourself. This was a great option for me, and when I found out they were doing pickups in my area in the next few weeks and badly need winter clothes I decided I would procrastinate no longer.

I separated my stuff into three groups: garbage, donation, and memory lane. I also had a teeny pile of things to keep there indefinitely that were not part of memory lane such as my ski clothes and such. After about 3 and a half hours at my dad’s house I am only 80% done! But that will suffice for now, and I will do the rest in the spring when I can.

How much am I donating in the end? I am actually embarrassed to share….. 31 large garbage bags stuffed to the brim with sweaters, t shirts, old dance clothes, scarves, hats, gloves, and about 250 books. I was torn on many of the items, not wanting to let them go, but it is much better to let someone else enjoy them then let them collect dust and who knows what else in the basement right? I also collected 15 garbage bags of trash. That is super sad, isn’t it?

It is always hard to do such tasks without taking a trip down memory lane, and tonight was no different. I ended up putting together about 3 storage containers of things I want to keep for later on in life… Here are a couple of things to share with you:

I was an RA my sophomore and senior years in college. Here are my door tags from senior year. I put a picture of myself on my door so that everyone on my floor would know what I looked like, and my cousin helped me make the funky door tag below it, which all of the residents on my floor got!

Three pieces of my past.
Top: When I was super little my mom had this cute little wooden flag thing made for me. It matched my little kid’s furniture (pink and grey). I still remember the day that I got to walk into my brand new room (with actual walls! the last time I had seen it it had none as it was a new house) and the flag was hanging on the wall.
Left: My best friend DrumMajor and I took these funky pics in high school I think. Also, I think we thought we were hotties? hahahaha!
Right: I took a RISD graphic design class when I was 12 and one of the assignments was to put together a creative cd cover for a bad up band. I decided “phrogg” was the way to go. I loved my final design as a kid.

Remember the jewelry “business” I was telling you about in the tag a couple of posts ago? Here was the box I used to hold all of my stud earrings. My mom made me the case! Oh, and the italia soccer ball zip keychain was where I kept my beloved $50 cents every Tuesday and Thursday (ice cream day) in elementary school. Man those days were fantastic.

A quote I loved so much and still love today. In Italian class in 9th grade of high school we had to read this book and this was one of the last lines. It has stuck with me for life. The basic translation is “And when many roads open in front of you and you’re not sure which one to take, before you decide, sit down and wait. Go where your heart takes you…” I love it so much. I must say it is much more eloquent in Italian. And the pic of the adorable little girl on the right is me (framed in a gorgeous frame from Italia)!

Thanks for letting me take a trip down memory lane…. it feels nice to share… both my clothes and books with those who need them and my memories with all of you!