flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2007-09-09 08:27 pm
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Tell me where all lost years are...

They're in my linen closet. No really, they are. I turned it out today and you wouldn't believe what I found.

The linen closet is the closet in the study and it's maybe a foot deep on a good day (listen, this house *leans*; I'm sure the width varies over time) and four feet wide. It has shelves built in on either side of the door, maybe a foot wide each, and one long shelf at the top reaching across. The shelves on either side are not, of course, on the same level as each other so I could balance long shelves between them. Mr. Damiani was not into functionality and common sense.

So yeah. Things get shoved away on my bitsy shelves and a great stack of pillows, blankets, pillow cases, towels and whatever get piled up in the centre, resting on boxes that contain I forget what. So today, tired of the ever migrating duvet covers and pillowcases and bathmats, I worked down through the stack. And found

1) A bar of Roger et Gallet carnation soap, gift many years ago from the aunt who died in 2001. R&G is no good as soap- too dry- but as a sachet and fragrancer it has no peer. The middle stratus of sheets smell divine in consequence. I'm thinking of carving the thing up and dispersing it through all my drawers.

2) A portable backgammon set in a leather case. Present from I believe my younger brother just after his marriage in 1988. I don't play backgammon, BTW.

3) A rotary telephone. Provenance and raison d'etre unknown. There's another downstairs in the mudroom as well.

4) A system of straps and velcro and rubber that looks useful for B&D. I forget things a lot but I don't think I've ever done B&D. I turned it round and round trying to figure what it could possibly be and finally saw the name- Nadachair. Ceci n'est pas une chaise. It's a nice idea and seems to work better on the back than when I bought it- late 80's again- but arthritic knees are definitely against it.

5) A log-shaped Obusforme lumber pillow. Now that one I know dates to this century, a hopeful replacement for the inflatable lumbar pillow I used to travel with and use as a pillow pillow, because it's perfect for that. They don't make the inflatables any more and the obus ones are no good as pillows, so I shoved it in the closet. I lost the lumbar pillow the trip before last- 2001- and only found it again last year in the chest in my bedroom. And used it as a pillow again until it sprung a leak and I went back to concrete neck and headache.

6) The right bottom box has a bunch of framed photos of my mother and aunt as girls, last seen downstairs when I went to Japan in 1990. My tenant removed them- he had some idea of turning the living room into a dojo practice room, so stripped it down and then never got around to getting mats and so on. I put the pics back on top of the china cabinet.

7) The left bottom box has innumerable cassettes from the 70's and 80's. I've no idea what to do with them. Does anyone listen to tapes any more? besides me, I mean.

8) Ditto the cassette holder with drawers, evidently never used. Never did care for them- it's hard to get the tapes out once they're in.

9) My XL blue 'Superego' sleepshirt from the big craft fair, November '86. (Part of a series of Freudian Slips, they were called.) Always wondered what I did with that; the other is still in my bedroom.

10) Two pairs of bluejeans. I haven't worn bluejeans in 20 years. I know I put those away when they got too small for me, 25 pounds ago.

11) A pad of writing paper with chintzy flowers. Memory says it dates from university in 1972.

12) A blue cotton Indian dress I occasionally wore in Japan, but not to shop in because the Akihabara hawkers would snub me when I wore it, since they assumed- no really- that I was Indian.

13) A stained-glass heart on a silver thread, some kind of Christmas tree ornament. Can't place it at all.

and finally

14) On the bottom left hand shelf, under miscellaneous bits of material, my kobun reader from classical Japanese class, 1989-1990. It used to be in the kitchen. I could never find it in the kitchen and couldn't *think* where I'd put it. I can't *think* now why I'd put it in the linen cupboard, but there it is. Come rejoice with me, for that which was lost has been found.

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
It's lovely to find things lost found again and the wonderment of "I didn't need then, so do I need it now? Do I keep it? -Do I chuck it? Is it in condition good enough to be given away? IS there anyone who will find it useful!"

Coincidentally I have decided that TODAY I will blitz our little place again! ^__^ unfortunately I know I will find a lot of useless stuffs.

I wonder what I'll find! I hope I find the house keys I lost last week (which resulted in me having to make another set!)and the bus card my girl lost last month (this resulted in her walking more! -which can only be good)! ^__^

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
See earlier post about misplacing things for the pleasure (and reassurance) of finding them again. These days it's more putting them somewhere and then forgetting that I did. I occasionally do this with food- buy some sinful halvah, eat a little, put rest in freezer, forget I have the stuff, and days later go Oh look sweeties!!

Which means I must be ***very careful*** with things like keys and wallets and credit cards. Utmost mindfulness and never casually putting them in pockets.

[identity profile] cesmith.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 11:02 am (UTC)(link)
Lots of hidden treasures. The best thing I ever found when I was cleaning was 70 dollars that I had lost. It had fallen behind my dresser, stuck 1/2 way between the top and bottom. A couple of years later, on a whim, I decided to move the furniture around, something I do when I am bored, and I was rewarded for my effort. As for cleaning I have boxes from 8 years ago when we moved that I have yet to unpack. I wish I could just toss them, sight unseen, but my conscience would never forgive me if I threw something *vaguely* important out.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I grew up in an enormous house (it wasn't enormous when built but of necessity became that way) with a collector father and a packrat mother who never threw anything out, including her grandmother from France's dresses. I was accustomed to opening any drawer or closet and finding amazing things, and I think I miss that. Buy- store- forget is the best I can manage now. It's about time I started a little Buddhist detachment from Things but I still can't shake my mother's wisdom, bolstered by experience, that you never know when it will come in handy.

[identity profile] tammylee.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I kept waiting for mention of a wee Indiana Jones running amok in your shelves on your linen closet expedition!

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Pfft. I wouldn't *have* Indiana Jones in my closets. Flinders Petrie is what I need.