Treasure

I’m a ‘friperie’ fanatic.  I admit it.  I can’t pass a secondhand store, garage sale or even an interesting looking pile of garbage without stopping to check it out (much to my family’s chagrin!).  There’s just something that fascinates me about owning an item that has a history attached to it.  I can spend hours going through racks of clothing that still have the scent of their previous wearers.  I particularly love rummaging through shelves of knickknacks and books.  To hold a book in my hands that has been read by another, gives me double the pleasure of reading it (as do public library books!).

However, there’s a down side to my affection for the previously owned.  I tend to accumulate.  And accumulate.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been on a quest to tidy up my belongings once and for all.  According to http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22318578-the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up, if whatever you own does not spark joy, then it goes.  Since starting my clean up, I’ve given away over 15 garbage bags of clothing and shoes that just don’t spark any joy in my life and I have to say that I’m feeling very liberated!  I open my small closet and chest of drawers to only clothing whose materials and colours bring me happiness.  It’s a good feeling.

There are some things that I just won’t part with, even though they were probably found in a garbage pile and I haven’t really put them to use or have forgotten them altogether.  They’re what I call treasures.