I’m trying to de-clutter my life and go through our material possessions and eliminate what we really don’t need. It is funny how *things* can take over your life. They take up space and require our time, in that they need to be cleaned or put in their proper place.
When I think of the *things* that matter to me, they aren’t necessarily items that are expensive, or considered valuable from a monetary perspective.
We had a bedroom set that belonged to my parents. Dad picked it out a few years before he died, and when mom had her house build in Lake Havasu City, she wanted something different. So, for over 15 years we’ve had this bedroom set that is really beautiful (and expensive) furniture, yet has never been our cup of tea. Our daughter, recently told us how much she loved the set, and it didn’t take long for us to offer it to her.
But what will we use? I am more than happy to use another hand-me-down set, one that belonged to my Grandma Hilda. In fact, this older, somewhat rickety vintage vanity and dresser has such a sentimental place in my heart, that sitting at it each morning brings back a flood of cherished memories.
When I was a little girl and visited my beloved Grandma Hilda, I would often sit at her dressing table to comb my hair. I’d peek in the drawers, which were filled with bobby pins, rollers and jewelry. I especially recall the pop beads. Grandma always wore pop beads. She also wore earrings everyday. She didn’t have pierce ears, her earrings were the clip type.
Mom might be Grandma’s daughter, but the two kept their dresser drawers very differently. Mom’s are orderly, pristine, with neat little perfectly folded piles. Grandma’s were stuffed with chaotic surprises and clutter. There was something comforting in that clutter.
After my grandmother passed away my sister, Lynn, came in the possession of the bedroom set. Lynn’s father-in-law refinished the vanity and dresser and removed the wooded handles and replaced them with porcelain.
When we built our second Wrightwood house (around 1990) Lynn gave me the set for our new home. Unfortunately we weren’t in the home long, as dad became terminally ill with congestive heart failure just two months after moving into the house. I moved to Havasu shortly after, followed by Don and the kids.
The dresser then went to our daughter, Elizabeth, during her high school years. I’ve always felt Elizabeth was a lot like Grandma Hilda. Not only does she have Hilda’s nose…like her grandma she is sweet, stubborn and kept the drawers on the small dresser stuffed with random items.
Recently the dresser has been in my den, but now it has returned to the master suite. The only thing it needs is some pop beads. I wonder, where do you find those these days?
