23/365

It seems a bit callous, but as my grandmother is moving into a care assisted flat in a few weeks, we really needed to start clearing out the house a bit. Starting with the basement. My grandparents are of the generation that really didn’t throw stuff away. Last time my parents visited they discovered the coffe maker had a cracked pot. They couldn’t find a replacement pot, so they had to buy a new machine. My mom went to put the old one in the basement with the idea of handing it in for safe disposal/recycling later, and found not just one, but two older coffee makers there already. Needless to say they’ve all been adequately disposed off now…

So today’s picture is of one of the cupboards in the basement which we’ve now cleaned out. My mom had already started when I snapped this, getting rid of all the various plastic tubs and boxes my grandmother has kept in case they might prove useful at some point. The top shelf mostly contains the very durable jamming pots called “Norgesglass”. We might keep some, but the rest can be given to the local charity shop. As for the rest, we bagged it up and brought it to the local recycling station.

Now, see, I have packrat genes. I, too, keep empty containers to a ridiculous degree (and fill them again with jam, which we hardly ever eat, so I don’t quite know why I bother), so I totally understand why my grandmother’s cupboard looked like this. And there are plenty of treasures in among the “junk”. We did a lot of exclaiming with joy, in between the exclamations of exasperation. One day, I’m sure, my children and grandchildren will have to perform the same clearing out of my basement. Lets hope they, too, find things to exclaim about – with joy, as well as with exasperation.