Make Yourself Mend It

So, I have finally really gotten started working on my office today. It feels good but also almost embarrassing. As I go through things I feel like people might think I was a hoarder if they were just looking in my office. I save so many things.

 Now, I can easily rationalize my saving. I am an avid crafter. I love to make things and I do it all the time. My family (the girls especially) also love to make things. They also do it on a very regular basis. We buy crafting supplies pretty much never. We almost always use what we have. We have been given so many, many craft supplies and we also love to repurpose things - so I save old jeans, old sweaters, old t-shirts, etc...

 That is all well and good but it can get out of hand. And my office closet (and even the office itself to some extent) was proof of that. I need to weed some things out. So I am. I got rid of over 100 items in my office today and there is still a long way to go. Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day at working on it.

  But I have been thinking on something else - also related- that I wanted to discuss. That is the subject of mending. I love to mend things. It is so fun to see something that was broken/not good in some way working well once more. Whether it be clothes or other items it is nice to see a life extended. But we get busy, it can be so easy to set aside that mending for another day, that day becomes a week, then a month, then a year, then a decade. Maybe none of you have done that but I know I have done it for years and quite possibly a decade before. By that time if it is clothes it quite possibly doesn't fit anymore or is out of date. And if it is something else it has just been taking up space unusable for far to long.

  I know for me if it needs mending I don't want to give it away and foist it onto somebody else, that just doesn't seem nice, but I hate to see it fill the land fill either. But I think sometimes we just have to draw the line and say "It is okay to through things away sometimes."

  So, since I have pretty much determined this month that we were no longer keeping things that needed mending I have been mending things like crazy. :-) It is fun to have various items in working order again. There is still one thing (a broken can opener handle) that I haven't figured out how to mend but I am working on it as I really like that can opener. It cannot just go back in the drawer to wait a while longer. And I want to take finished kitchen photos soon so it needs to get off the counter so the time to get it mended is running out. :-)

  I think setting some deadlines about mending is helpful. Also, just look at the article really honestly and ask "Is it really worth my time to mend it?" Will we really use it that much? Maybe I should just get rid of it.

   I would love to hear your thoughts on this and whether you also have historic mending piles.