Gertrude had finally realized she had a problem. No, it shouldn't have taken the stack of newspapers collapsing on her to realize this, but that is ultimately what did it. It's hard to ignore your problems when they're literally hitting you over the head. After she managed to surface from the flood of newsprint, covered in an dusty layer of ink, she knew she had to change.
That night, she began sorting things to get rid of them. She first threw out the things that were easy to throw out: the old newspapers and other periodicals that were all online these days. She snapped pictures of a few particular articles and downloaded them to her laptop so she could be sure she'd always have them. That took up most of her first night.
The next day, Gertrude decided to weed out other things that could be digitized. She found a service that would digitize photos from rolls of film and she mailed them all off. The photos she had that she didn't have digital versions or negatives of, she mailed off to a different service that specialized in creating high quality files from old photographs.
Later, she began to weed out her clothes. How had she ended up with so many clothes? Gertrude didn't even really enjoy dressing up and here she was with over two closets worth of stuff. Some things she just threw away, they were too old and raggedy for anyone to want. She found some old baby clothes of hers that she boxed up and sent to her sister, who was expecting twins. She then gathered a bunch that she could donate and arranged a pick up at the end of the week (she knew she'd have more stuff to donate by then anyways).
It wasn't that none of this was hard for Gertrude, it was. Everything brought up memories for her which is why, ultimately, she had been saving them, trying to preserve every memory by tethering it to this world with a physical talisman. But you can't remember everything forever and some things need to be let go. The things she had the most difficulty with parting, but knew she had to part with, she took photos of or even made a little video diary entry (digital hoarding wasn't perfect, but it sure took up a lot less space).
The next day, Gertrude decided she had to be honest with herself about what she was actually going to try cooking one of these days. She weeded down to one cookbook she actually wanted to try and set up a system so that, if in a month, she hadn't used the book, she would be reminded on her phone to use it or lose it (you can find tons of recipes online these days anyways). She decided that, no, she never was going to make both heart shaped waffles and Darth Vader shaped waffles. She picked out friends to mail them to who would enjoy them and whose birthdays were coming up. She also knew that she did not need both of her blenders. One would do fine and the other could be donated.
This process of weeding everything down continued even after the scheduled pick up. Gertrude was finding it freeing to rid herself of so much baggage, to have space in her home once again, and to not feel stressed about how many things she had but didn't use. She read a bit about it online so that she could keep going and not fall back in her hoarding habits. She saw a suggestion to narrow down to fifty things and, gradually, she did so.
Her next things to go were gifts that she had only kept out of guilt instead of genuine enjoyment. She got a library card and sold off books that she, frankly, knew she was never going to read no matter how many friends or reviewers told her it was the book. She found more childhood items to send off to her sister after her sister had excitedly called her when the first package of clothes had arrived. She felt a bit of a twinge, but knew her sister's kids would get so much more out of them and Gertrude had always wanted to be a good aunt. Her sister promised to pass them back when Gertrude had kids and Gertrude smiled at the idea.
Yes, in the end it would have been nice if it hadn't taken so long and such a dramatic collapsing of her constructed and hoarded world to get her to change, but, regardless, Gertrude was happy she had.
(Prompt by Sonia Soto)
That night, she began sorting things to get rid of them. She first threw out the things that were easy to throw out: the old newspapers and other periodicals that were all online these days. She snapped pictures of a few particular articles and downloaded them to her laptop so she could be sure she'd always have them. That took up most of her first night.
The next day, Gertrude decided to weed out other things that could be digitized. She found a service that would digitize photos from rolls of film and she mailed them all off. The photos she had that she didn't have digital versions or negatives of, she mailed off to a different service that specialized in creating high quality files from old photographs.
Later, she began to weed out her clothes. How had she ended up with so many clothes? Gertrude didn't even really enjoy dressing up and here she was with over two closets worth of stuff. Some things she just threw away, they were too old and raggedy for anyone to want. She found some old baby clothes of hers that she boxed up and sent to her sister, who was expecting twins. She then gathered a bunch that she could donate and arranged a pick up at the end of the week (she knew she'd have more stuff to donate by then anyways).
It wasn't that none of this was hard for Gertrude, it was. Everything brought up memories for her which is why, ultimately, she had been saving them, trying to preserve every memory by tethering it to this world with a physical talisman. But you can't remember everything forever and some things need to be let go. The things she had the most difficulty with parting, but knew she had to part with, she took photos of or even made a little video diary entry (digital hoarding wasn't perfect, but it sure took up a lot less space).
The next day, Gertrude decided she had to be honest with herself about what she was actually going to try cooking one of these days. She weeded down to one cookbook she actually wanted to try and set up a system so that, if in a month, she hadn't used the book, she would be reminded on her phone to use it or lose it (you can find tons of recipes online these days anyways). She decided that, no, she never was going to make both heart shaped waffles and Darth Vader shaped waffles. She picked out friends to mail them to who would enjoy them and whose birthdays were coming up. She also knew that she did not need both of her blenders. One would do fine and the other could be donated.
This process of weeding everything down continued even after the scheduled pick up. Gertrude was finding it freeing to rid herself of so much baggage, to have space in her home once again, and to not feel stressed about how many things she had but didn't use. She read a bit about it online so that she could keep going and not fall back in her hoarding habits. She saw a suggestion to narrow down to fifty things and, gradually, she did so.
Her next things to go were gifts that she had only kept out of guilt instead of genuine enjoyment. She got a library card and sold off books that she, frankly, knew she was never going to read no matter how many friends or reviewers told her it was the book. She found more childhood items to send off to her sister after her sister had excitedly called her when the first package of clothes had arrived. She felt a bit of a twinge, but knew her sister's kids would get so much more out of them and Gertrude had always wanted to be a good aunt. Her sister promised to pass them back when Gertrude had kids and Gertrude smiled at the idea.
Yes, in the end it would have been nice if it hadn't taken so long and such a dramatic collapsing of her constructed and hoarded world to get her to change, but, regardless, Gertrude was happy she had.
(Prompt by Sonia Soto)
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