Cleaning The Basement

We are spending this Memorial Day weekend, cleaning the new cabinets and trying to put kitchen "stuff" back into a cabinet, drawer, or shelf where we hope we can remember where we put it when we begin looking for it.  We are also taking "stuff" to the Goodwill store.  I borrowed my son's pickup and have taken two loads out of our basement.  A basement is a very good thing; except it is too handy to just take an item to the basement rather than give or throw it away.  Our basement is an interesting collection of "stuff."  I bring something up from the basement and, then my wife and I try to figure out why we kept it after we had decided that we had no use for it.  Some of the "stuff" we have no use for collects space and dust in the basement but, we remember who gave it to us and on what occasion.  Therefore, I take that "stuff" back to the basement because of the associated story and memory.  It would be easier and probably more productive to clean something like a basement, if you didn't remember the associated stories with all the "stuff."  Many things in life that are valuable primarily because of the associated story and memory.