One of our sons just adopted two kittens. They are adorable and I got to hold and pet them the other day.

We are in the midst of “Swedish death cleansing” known as döstädning. “It’s what people are doing before somebody passes away so that the relatives don’t get left with the big chore of sorting out their personal things.” Except we do not plan on dying soon. 

Perhaps this is “Oregon reverse gathering”. I am 65 and I do intend to live another twenty or thirty years. It is not an unreasonable expectation. What I do not expect to do during that time is use all of the hundreds of spools of thread I inherited from my mother and grandmothers (also my aunt and my step-grandmother’s second husband’s brother who is responsible for an oversize spool of heavy black cotton thread). The four baskets are shown midway in my sorting and contain only about a half dozen spools of handquilting thread that I actually purchased. The rest found their way to me through no effort on my part. The effort is in using or disposing of them. The sewing notions are taking me longer than anything else. Elastic, zippers (when was the last time I put in a zipper?), thousands of needles and pins. I found two darning needles I had been looking for. I found all the missing pincushions. Too many pairs of scissors. Sewing machine parts I do not recognize and that may not fit the 1940s sewing machine I use. Just separating all these into sorted containers has taken me a week. And I am not done.

No worries. I have a plan.

The sewing notions will be used or donated. The car is presently stuffed with other items for Goodwill. There will be more drives north to the donation site. There will be projects organized and stashed. I will compile sewing kits for each grandchild, and I will restock the drawers of my sewing machine and the little sewing chest downstairs. Both were emptied while I sort. I will find places to donate the rest. Perhaps each of my writing students would appreciate a sewing kit to take away to college?

Clothing, because I keep everything, has been a challenge. I finally researched Eileen Fisher’s program offering $5 in credit for each used EF garment. To think of all the Ebay purchases I wore for a time and then donated to Goodwill! I went through my stashed/binned clothing and garment that have hung in my closet for years without being worn. I held back the burgundy velvet skirt and two silk tank tops for the fabric. The rest goes. I plan a trip to an EF store. I hope to half pay for a pair of shoes. In the mean time, what had been three large bins is now just one, and I have space to hang something new. (I will resist that last temptation.)

The furniture is more of a problem. There is still plenty that needs an exit strategy. Chairs, a low cabinet with sliding glass doors, an Ikea desk, a farmer’s dining table with a drawer, a 4-drawer file cabinet. These are all free for the taking unless we can find a way to load and take them to a charity. None will come to collect them, not even for a price.

We still have a plan.

All this work will not all be done in time for our family reunion this weekend, but enough will be sorted that the five children can safely play and that two cars can park in our garage. It will be done soon enough, the attic is completely empty, bins await delivery to family, and then I will sort other gatherings of clutter: the desk, the linen closet, the Kitchen Queen. There is a still a great deal to go. I have a list, and I assume that once I have ticked off all that I know to sort, I will begin again.

Nest week we are rewarding ourselves with a night at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. We are staying in the Shakespeare room. There is no WiFi, no phone or television. We have our reading planned. We will eat dinner out and Gary will have Guinness at the Irish pub down the street. Maybe, just maybe, I will take along some knitting. There will be no hurry about getting home as there was when we had pets.

Our cat suffered when we were gone for more than a few hours, and as a result, we are only now becoming accustomed to the freedom and leaving for overnight stays. Clearing the house lightens our lives, provide a freedom of some sort, a mental decluttering along with the physical decluttering. Letting go is not only a human problem.

But still, we both miss the cat.