#Day18: For better or worse...and all the clutter in between

Sometimes when you are attempting #day18 of #theminimalistproject by decluttering the top of the toy shelf in your diningroom playroom, you discover a whole lot of reasons why #noclutterNovember is totally necessary in your life.

November 18th, my 18 things:

A sampling of my 18 things includes:
an empty calendar from 2008 (What?!),
a basket of loose pieces from various games we no longer have (again....What?!),
used sports event tickets (okay, maybe...but NO!),
silly bands (Hi, 2008 called, they want their silly bandz back!),
a broken Christmas tree ornament (Why?!),
and an expired bottle of medicine (kind of understandable, but not necessary...or effective).

And then I was motivated to clear a few things from a basement utility shelf that was left by the previous owner over 10 years ago, including brass cleaner, cans of stuff that I have no understanding of their use, and these...

Umm, yes, that says "celebrating 30 years of Success" and I truly hope that isn't a celebration of Wegmans' 30 years because they were founded in 1916!






It's amazing what you can find when you are actually peeling back the layers....and I'm talking literally and figuratively, because amidst the trash from the last few decades today's purge, I also found my "missing" wedding album!

Thinking it was gone forever, I came across a single book holding a seriously timely find of every picture taken the day Paul and I said our vows in 2003.....
There it lay on the unreachable shelf-top between layers of dusty 2008 memorabilia and about 10 envelopes of pictures given to me by my father-in-law (who is the last faithful printer of paper-copy photos).

I found it ironically meaningful that in removing the clutter, I was able to find my marriage.
Let that sink in.


So "Goodbye, years of old junk that was saved as a reminder ....for such a time as this.
Hidden beneath you was something much more meaningful than you ever could be...
And to think I wouldn't have seen what really matters without disposing of the unnecessary!"

...AND...

Happy Anniversary to this crazy couple!

(Yep, my parents rolled with the hooded dresses, rubber grapes, brown crushed velvet, mint green & peach ruffled shirts....and did I mention the long, luscious locks...

on my dad!)