The Gift of the Missing Camera or How I Reenacted a Scene from Hoaders

Matthew 6:19-21 (The Message) "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

I always have my camera and cell phone on me.  You never know when a moment should be captured and not missed [sometimes I think I might capture every moment but that is another issue.;) ].

I had agreed to do a guest post and was going to take the last of the tutorial pictures Sunday afternoon.  And then my camera came up missing!  

Had I left at my In-Laws the night before? Had it fell out of my purse at church when it was knocked over?  Lost in the car?  I looked but couldn't find it.  

So I called my mom to borrow hers so I could get the pictures taken for the tutorial before I lost sunlight.

Now for the backstory.  My mom is a bit of a clutterbug [nicer word than hoarder].  I am recovering, as I have confessed here in this and a few other posts.  Our problem is that with the death of my grandma, we now have 5 houses of stuff to condense into 2 [and 2 of those houses were pretty full..]. 

Enter a neighbor friend of my mother trying to help out.  He and his wife cleared and stacked the large amount that filled her current garage to make a space for the random things from my grandmother's home here in Florida.

{The things we took from her Ohio home, though minimal, currently are in my garage..that was going to be the Stampin Up craft room.  Oh well, for now.}

That clearing and stacking meant they went through 7+ years of untouched stuff {while she lived with and helped my grandma], boxes never unpacked from our move from Ohio to Florida 22+ years ago, boxes from my adventures living in Nashville 10+ years ago...oh the list could go on and on.  The problem with other people going through your stuff is that everything is junk in their eyes and all should be thrown away.  Especially if they are not keepers {like us}.  

So back to our current story.  Recap, lost my camera, had to borrow mom's, I go over and see to her newly cleared garage.  Pretty impressive they were able to stack what was on one level completely filling the garage, to smooshed up to the ceiling [almost] in the corner.  

Room in there for a car..not that we would really put a car in the garage.  

Disclaimer: down south there are no basements.  Basements can hide your chaos and crazy.  Northies are lucky for that. In the south, your "basement" is the garage..if you are a keeper. ;)

So I got the camera and a few clothes she keeps "finding" she bought for Abigale.  And I pull out of the drive..and glance for a bit too long at the large amount of stuff at the end of the drive.  I could say, why didn't I pull out and keep driving.   I mean this stuff had years of "who knows what" eating it and doing "what I don't want to know" on it.  But, there was that large oversized frame in it I could fix.  And why was there a perfectly good gunrack {when we never had guns}?  

So I did it.  I got out of my car and started looking at the stack of stuff.  

Mind you, some was actually MY stuff.  

I had a right to look and make sure nothing important was being pitched by these complete {heartless} strangers, right?!  As I opened the top bag and saw very personal stuff, it was ON.

Here is what I uncovered.  A storybook collection that was my complete favorite as a child.  My all time favorite short story is The Little Matchgirl and this was the book that held it, that I had read {and cried over the story-read it, you'll cry, too} for so many years. Yes, the binding was eaten a bit.  But it something I would love to read to my kids and some things are just not garbage despite their damage. Am I keeping it?  Yes.

My childhood favorite with Jesse's little fingers in the corner.

I grabbed the frame for a redo. I grabbed the gunrack to become a ribbon holder. A spice rack will be a bottle holder for glitters and embossing powders and such.  Why should I buy organizational new stuff when my mom's garage {okay, garbage pile} is filled with completely usable stuff.  Paint works wonders and makes for great blogging.

Note: when they knew we were having a yard sale, why would you pitch completely undamaged wood pieces like this anyway.  Again, {heartless} non-keepers. I am sure of it.  

 There was a box set of Kenny Rogers.  Box was damaged but CDs in side were mint.  Would I have missed this of it had been lost? No. But it is Classic Kenny.  Come on. 

There was sheet music that I grabbed and an old printing of the Yearling I had bought for my mom as a child because, for some reason, I thought she liked the story.  Making things with old bookpages is too hot right now to throw those away.

I left the Ramona and Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins books in the box...Abigale can have her own collection.  I do know where to draw the line somewhere. 
But there I was, in the dress I still had on from church, digging through each bag & box of garbage.  Reenacting the sad scene in almost every episode from Hoarders or Clean House. Looking at moth eaten notes and cards and papers from literally 10 and 20 years ago.  Bags of bedding and books and toys that had become nests for too many bugs and other critters.  

And, yes, feeling a bit of sadness... but leaving most of it behind.  

When I arrive home, John goes out into the van to see if he can find the camera. 

And there it was, in clear view.  

So I am going to count that as a gift.  He pointed it out.  If I saw the camera, I would have never went over there and the digging would have never occurred.  

And some would say, that would have been better.  

But when I read those stories to my kids from that cherished book, like my mom and grandma read to me, I will remember this gift and the rescue that followed.

And how some things are worth saving.