Menostalgikkul; Featuring Particular Items

In his recent visit to Edinburgh, Mac3 helped with a little bit of decluttering of the attic. (To be fair, it didn't start out like that, but as a search for one particular item. We have a substantial floored attic and there are rather a lot of particular items up there...) 

Among lots of things that were cheerfully removed for relocation to the council tip, he rediscovered one of his own particular items. A 'bureau-style' desk our father had made for him, many of his 50+ years ago. He deliberated and decided that he could let it go. After all, he'd forgotten all about it. That is what attics are for, is it not? To place all those particular items of life to which attachments have been formed or which may one day spring back into use... and then out of sight out of mind and they become a voyage nostalgikkul when the door is dropped again.

Now, you need to know if you didn't already, the YAMster has a bit of a peeve about the keeping of things beyond their proper purpose. She has been desperate for the attic (and under-annexe and garage...) to be decluttered almost since ever she arrived back in the Bonny Land. If you have no immediate use for something but can see the need arising in, say 2-5 years (depending on the particular item), then okay. If, after that time period allotted, however, no use has been made and indeed the item itself has been forgotten about, then rid yourself of it!!! I do allow that ornaments from Africa and hand-made furniture may be exceptions to this time ruling.

I do my utmost not to collect more than is absolutely required for my own needs here at the Hutch (yes, still here at the time of writing, but actually travelling back east this weekend). When I do permit stuff to enter here, it is on the proviso that I actually need it for some specific task, or that it serves a healthy purpose in life. This is helped by the fact there is no attic and the one storage cupboard has no room for anything but useful stuff.

Included in this philosophy is the artwork I have mounted on the walls. If one accepts that ambience and intellectual pursuit may be gained from such, then each item hanging here serves a purpose; if it is my own work, then it has served as mental release and self-expression as well as memory; if it is the work of others, it is because it has sparked something deep within upon which to contemplate. (...hmmm... there could be an idea for a few posts... !!!) I like space in my living place. Proportion. As much as it is possible here, that is what I aim for. Occasionally it gets away from me, but I am also very adept at decluttering myself and do it on a regular basis. I can't wait to be back to the Hutch on a more full-time basis (next year sometime???) so that I can put into practice what I have just boasted...

All that said and done, when Mac3 said he was going to release the bureau from his own life I could immediately see it serving a purpose in the Hutch!  Yes, dear readers, I claimed it for my own life. I knew exactly where it was going to go. 

The Hutch has a generous entry hall - almost a room on its own, and in some ways a waste of living space. That's as maybe, but it does feel rather grand to come into. I do have my ghar-mandir (home temple) set up there. There is a chair behind the door to catch coats and bags etc. Until now, there was also a cardboard box covered in silk cloth serving as a stand for my potpourri bowl. 

Whilst I have not quite decided which of several uses to put the interior to work, I am more than delighted with the presence of this particular item in my life now. (Didn't photo that, but it has three pigeon holes on the upper back and a flat board at the level you see the hinges, which opens up to a 'secret compartment'.)

In that mythical time of longer residence, it will get stripped back and painted.