Holiday Unburdening/Reburdening
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Continuing on my early choice of a New Year’s Intention, Unburdening, I am reporting the latest chapter. A while back I read that someone who worked in a thrift shop wished that parents would do the Christmas out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-toy-clean-out BEFORE Christmas instead of after so that the thrift shops would be stocked for those who cannot afford new gifts for their children. What a great idea! I suspect thrift shops get slammed in January because as people begin to put away their Christmas decorations, they also feel the urge to thin out clutter in general. Even those of us whose children have flown the nest experience this.
My husband and I decided while at Home Depot the other night to replace our 15-year-old set of small Christmas trees with one new, larger one. This led to having to decide on a new location for the larger tree, which led to furniture re-arranging, which led to unearthing lots of things that either should not have been in the living room or should not have been in this house at all. This played right into my unburdening ambitions. I have been throwing some things away, collecting other things to go to a thrift shop, and making yet another collection to re-home to various individuals. Meanwhile, I have been accumulating gifts for my family and the delivery folks have been bringing gifts from my parents to my family. I have almost everything wrapped, so far, and waiting at the end of the table to be installed under the new tree once it is ready. The tree is set up, but my plan is to finish unburdening the living room before I decorate it.
On to the kitchen… I did one of the big holiday grocery hauls last week, buying all the things I only buy this time of year and stocking up on the major staples like coffee, flour, and sugar. My refrigerator overfloweth, as does my pantry. I sure hope my family and friends show up to help me eat up some of this! In the meantime, I have been converting some of it into pre-prepped dishes, meals, and ingredients that can wait in the freezer until they are needed. I have been unburdening my kitchen as I go, throwing out (way, way) out of date spices when I open the spice drawer, for example, but I still need to do a massive unburdening of my pantry. Chickens are only too happy to help with food unburdening, by the way.
The next target is my sewing space. I aim to convert some of my supplies into gifts by sewing them up, and others by giving raw materials to other crafters. I would love to convert some of my fabric into clothes for the winter season, but I think that will have to wait until after Christmas—not much time for selfish sewing at the moment, especially with a Christmas grandbaby on the way. Now I am starting to wonder if I will need a new Intention at New Year’s. Nah, I feel certain Unburdening is enough to keep me busy until next year this time! But I may think of a few others to add to my list. Have you started thinking about New Year’s Intentions yet?