Call it by any name: downsizing, re-working, pruning, a new look...whatever! When one moves, inevitably it is time for things going to a new home and being reassembled, to make some hard choices. Aye, there's the rub! What IS being saved? Need? Nostalgia? How to decide?
Well, different spaces make different choices imperative...so what are the absolutes? Office/showroom is #1, but even here, we had to chop off a piece of longstanding shelving to make room for desk/computer layout. This involved some tricky bookspace layout, including small, tall, skinny, mini...doubt that there will ever be any logic to it...but since it is all old favorites, I look forward to a period of fun re-reading. As I was shelving the Galsworthy, I thought, "next winter when there is a snowy week, I am just going to nestle in with all the Forsytes".
The pottery is easier: the Rabbi's desk (see blog post) still holds my most cherished pieces, all of it having pride of place in a rather small living room.
The pottery for sale still has sufficient shelving in the office, and as things arrive, so do things depart.
But the paintings and wall pieces! took forever to distribute and hang in new groupings. Since my bedroom has, as it did before, a small collection of antique needlework French and American, I saved the assemblage complete, over my bed ...
... and then extended the theme to an odd "what am I going to do with this corner"? It ends up being the "Fun and Games" corner, all ready for Scrabble (when the children come) and jigsaw puzzles. And Voilà! what was still looking for a home? All my late needlework: some mine, some American pieces, the perfect finish for that corner!
Plants and clothes still need sorting, but that is true all the time, anyway. Am I sorry to have made this move and disposed of so much? Not at all! Now that I am settled in, I am pleased with the new arrangements and do not miss anything that is gone.
Excelsior! Joan Datesman
