Three Graceland Postcards

Posted by Melanie in Dear Diary, Travel | 1 comment

About a month ago I got a quote from a professional organizer on helping us in our home.  The quote was a whopping $2400.  We were surprised and when we looked around, we realized she was right.  Somehow in the last 8 years of having kids and moving out of our house and then back into our house (we were on sabbatical and traveled), things stopped having a place.  In that time, I have had 10 people working in my house, have had babies grow up and turn 8, have changed the use of almost every room, have had multiple clients here, and have closed a storefront, ending up with the leftovers of that business stashed here as well.  My office was probably the worst room in the house.

Now, I am not really a hoarder by nature,  but there have been some lean financial times in my past and I have been hanging onto things because I knew they had value and I had paid a lot of money for them.  But having a quote of $2400 gave me the incentive I needed to pare down.  I have been doing some serious editing.  I have gotten rid of a garbage can full of stuff, a recycle bin full of stuff and several boxes of freecycle stuff.  I have done a great job.  I feel proud and now everything has a place.  I have been through everything except a file cabinet and 3 drawers and I will get to them this week.  I have instituted a “Work in Progress” file where my ongoing projects are.  It has several projects in it but I am looking forward to clearing those, too.  It is a new system I am looking forward to working with.

But I am left with 3 postcards from Graceland that I don’t know what to do with.  I bought them 2 years ago when we went to Graceland.  I bought them–Mel says I always buy postcards and never send them–but these are the only ones I found.  I have placed them in my “Work in Progress” file but I know it’s not where they belong.  I had a dream when I bought them.  I would send them to people I care about.  They would  be a point of connection and would add something poignant to my life.  Now they are leftover paper from an old vacation.  Somehow the dream is gone.  I wonder if I should revive it.  I could send them out to people and just go after the connection for its own sake–they are decent stationery, after all.  Or I could honestly say, “I meant to send this 2 1/4 years ago… better late than never”.  Or I could throw them in the trash and never think of them again.  I feel some shame over buying something and never using it–at least that’s the shame I’m trying to avoid by finding a use for these postcards.  It violates my thrifty nature.  Whatever I end up doing, I think I need a time limit.  I will give myself to the end of the day to deal with this little piece of memorabilia.