Clutter, Treasure, and Ceiling Art

June 9, 2018 by JoAnna 33 Comments

(Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was to “start with a noun.”) 

Clutter is what I’m going to be dealing with tomorrow at my parents’ house that is now my house, so the clutter is all mine. My plan is to get up early and hitch a ride with my husband who has business an hour north of their house (now my other house) which is an hour north of where I live. I don’t mean to be confusing, but my stream of consciousness can easily be confusing.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the clutter is trash or treasure. There are books, many of which I’ve already donated, and lots and lots of paper which might need to be recycled or shredded, or treasured as in the case of the letters I found from my father or the poetry written by my mother’s father who I never met. So many electronics, cassette tapes, rubber bands, gadgets and doodads of my dad’s…. and photographs galore. Photos are in photo albums, boxes, bags… Many photos contain people who’s identity I have no clue about. I’m going to trash those. Sorry, unknown friends of my parents. But some photos are treasures like these two I discovered in a box somewhere or maybe a photo album and brought home with me.

When me and Dad both got watches for Christmas  ? 1963

And this one you might remember of my mom, my little sister and me. Dad was in Vietnam

Sometimes the process of going through my parents’ stuff/clutter/treasure is overwhelming. But it’s getting easier as I make progress. After one year, I think I’m about halfway done. I usually find I don’t want to leave their house to go to my house. There’s so much to do. But I like to congratulate myself for each bag of trash discarded, or treasures found, or items donated.

Another thing I do at my parents’ old house is painting over the most obvious blemishes. But one person’s blemish is another person’s treasured message. Like the water damage stains on the bedroom ceiling from before Dad put the metal roof on. I think they look like hearts.  They appeared there not long after Mom died. I think she had something to do with it.

Painting over these hearts was very hard. I had a good cry after I started the process. But it was a cleansing cry, and Mom told me it was okay. I started with kilz? and then white paint just to see how off it would be. Then I laid down to rest on the bed and noticed my sample white paint kinda looked like an angel. I did not plan this at all. It was just getting paint up there. Mom collected angels and has passed this down to me, so I’ve been painting angels for a few years now, just not usually on ceilings.

Do you see an angel?

I guess white is not going to work on this old ceiling. One step, one layer at a time, I sort out the treasures from the clutter.

I’m posting this early since I’ve got my work cut out for me on Saturday. Catch you later.

For more information about Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-9-18/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!