Trash and treasure

Yesterday's post about Tupperware got me to thinking. My kids are going to be so rich one day. When I'm dead and gone, they will be finding all sorts of treasures in the attic and in my closets. I don't know, though. The windfall could just add up to 23 cents. Don't spend it all in one place!

Yes, I'm a packrat. Worse, I have a sentimental attachment to stuff. You're not going to see me on an upcoming episode of Hoarders...I do value my floor space more than, say, the two TVs currently taking up a chunk of it in my bedroom. But if a thing has any inkling of sentimental value, it's mine and I will make it work.

Take for instance my living room furniture. This stuff is more than 20 years old. Every bit of it. It was all handed down, some before my divorce and some to help me furnish my own place afterward.

My couches belonged to an aunt. I think she bought them new in the '80s. Obviously she took good care of them. My coffee and end tables were my Nanny's. My sister, my cousins and I used to spend hours poring over the photo albums Nanny kept in them. We didn't know half the relatives we saw, but we loved looking at pictures of our parents when they were young, and baby pictures of ourselves. The table tops have warped a little over the years from sweating cups, and I've been debating about painting them. Whenever I'm at other people's houses, I often admire their newer coffee tables. But I just love mine.

I have other stuff, too. An entertainment center my mom and stepdad bought almost 30 years ago. A dinette set from my dad and stepmom, bought when I was 15. A desk that belonged to my stepmom's father. I have no idea how old it is, but judging from the hardware, I'm going with mid-'70s. Maybe even '60s. Vintage stuff, no?

I can't quite decide if all of this makes my place look dated, so I keep threatening to buy slipcovers and paint the furniture. I haven't yet been able to make myself shell out the couple hundred dollars for the slipcovers I really want (and I waffle on the color), and I'm a little afraid of tackling the painting. Will it ruin it? Will those tables still seem like Nanny's tables? Right now, I look around at my old stuff and see love and family. It's comforting.

Anyway, not only am I a sentimental fool, but I am a child of the '80s and proud of it. I wanted so bad to go to a John Hughes high school (I was in elementary school until '89) and be Molly Ringwald. So I jumped when my brother-in-law offered me his old Atari. Still works. He threw in the Sega, too. I'm ecstatic to be the proud owner of such a treasure. I even have PacMan, Freeway, Donkey Kong, E.T. and Asteroids and Sonic the Hedgehog! Other people, though, are somewhat unimpressed. I always expect a "Cool! Can I come over and play it?" Yeah...nobody does that. They haven't since the '80s. And that was me, because I didn't own an Atari. One day it will be cool again. I have faith. For now, it collects dust in a drawer.

I dunno. Maybe I will be on Hoarders one day. I think this is the very attitude they try to break!