By Bonnie Brown
Columnist

As I shared with you all in earlier columns, I always feel the need to declutter as spring approaches.  To me, spring defines the time when we prepare for the lazy days of summer.  When it’s too hot to move about so much, do the decluttering.  

Several weeks ago, I decluttered the drawers in the kitchen.  Tom even jumped in and together we tackled the dreaded “junk” drawer, and it looks fantastic — hardly anything other than essentials left in there.  My quest to clear clutter didn’t end with the kitchen drawers.  

Next, was my closet.  Yes, I tried very hard to follow the rule that if you hadn’t worn it in a year, to get rid of it, but I wasn’t 100 percent successful with that.  I went through all the drawers in the bedroom.  I sorted and discarded and donated a lot of stuff, including scarves that I no longer wear, old socks, and a half slip that given its age should probably go to the Smithsonian.   

I had a drawer of favorite do-dads that were/are special to me.  There is a glass rose (probably an Avon collectible).  There were 3 calendars that I had saved.  One that Tom and I did for our family in 1995.   We included family birthdays and anniversary dates along with the Ole Miss football schedule.  There were lots of photos to accompany the birthday dates.  Two calendars from 2004 and 2006 which were gifts from Tom’s sister, Pam, who had likewise included family birthdays along with precious family photos, many of them no longer with us.  

Things that brought me great pleasure and that were never on the discard list were an assortment of notecards collected from travels out west and beyond.  There is a special set of notecards crafted from an abstract painting done by our granddaughter Piper (now 16) when she was in Montessori pre-school.  I also found custom 37 cent USPS postage stamps.  The stamp shows Tom and me perched in Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. 

There were a couple of personalized name plates that used to adorn my desks at work.  There is a special round “tuit” fashioned by the late Dr. Burl Hunt in 2003.  It is made from leather and on the back of the “tuit” is written “Now you can do those things you were going to do when you got a round tuit.”  Very special indeed.  And if you were lucky enough to have one of these or some other Burl Hunt’s specialties, you were indeed lucky enough.  

I found a small seashell.  It was lovely, a silvery-white beautiful piece of the sea.  I wonder if there might have been a critter in there that should have been freed years ago, or was it merely a paperweight?  

I had a drawer completely filled with birthday cards and other mementos that I had saved.  I decided to simply remove them from the drawer and place them in a storage box and put them in the attic so I can casually go through them whenever I choose.  So, now there’s an empty drawer ready to receive more mementos as I collect them.  

I also found an instruction booklet for a camera.  I also found a camera.  Sadly, it is not the camera that goes with the instruction booklet.  Which to keep?  I kept both in the hopes that one day as I continue my decluttering, each would be reunited with its respective part.