My grandmother kept things that had potential. Bread sacks were rinsed after the loaf was gone, and used like we use Ziploc bags to store things today. We also used them to pull over our sneakers in the winter if we were surprised with a snow storm while visiting the farm she and my grandfather owned in the Ozark Mountains. A couple of big rubber bands (also from her stash) and a bag on each leg, and we were ready to play. She knew those bags held the potential to find a new purpose. They weren’t trash just yet.
I am an artist who loves to look at well-lit photos of art spaces that are clean and perfectly organized with coordinating colors and bins and cabinets that hide everything away from view and have cute little labels on them. HOWEVER – I am definitely not that artist.
My art space is cluttered with vintage vases full of pens and paint brushes, books full of inspiring projects, art I’ve picked up at craft shows or made myself, old wire baskets full of thrifted silver plated trays and shadow box picture frames, stacks of vintage fabric, random feathers and pine cones and other natural artifacts, small jars full of rocks, large jars full of buttons, things that remind me of people and places I love… etc. (Etc. is doing a LOT of work here.)
I do have a few pieces of furniture in the space that store things. An antique metal vanity holds art supplies, my glue gun and hand tools like hammers and needle nose pliers. A fabulous Heywood Wakefield dresser is stuffed with random odds and ends like tiny little bottles with cork stoppers, a box of scrabble tiles, old polaroid flashbulbs, bits of wire, balls of twine, hand-crocheted lace... All of these things, in drawers or not, were stashed away with the idea of using them in mixed media art pieces. I love them because they have potential.
Perhaps Grandma’s tendency to keep things like bread bags and rubber bands was a holdover from being raised during the Great Depression, but I definitely inherited her aversion to waste and maybe a tendency to hold on to things past the time I should let them go. I have more books than I could reasonably try to read in the next ten years, but I keep them because of the potential enjoyment or education I would get from them. I keep things that some people might think of as junk because of the potential projects I would like to make with them.
You know how it’s hard to let go of a favorite item of clothing that no longer fits because you remember how beautiful it was when it was new? When you look at it hanging in the back of your closet you remember how perfectly it fit you, right? How great you felt in it. When you lose weight/get in shape/let out the seams it will be perfect again and you’ll feel so good in it! Maybe it’s for the same reason that we hold onto some relationships longer than we should, because of the potential they hold. We remember how great it was in the beginning, and we know how hard we’ve been trying to make it fit again.
I mentioned in my post last week that I found myself suddenly and unexpectedly divorced a few months ago. This means within the next couple of years I’ll be moving out of the 3200 sqft house I’ve lived in for 17 years and into something that’s likely about half that size, possibly smaller thanks to the stupid housing market. While I have some down time between semesters I decided it would be a good use of the days I’m spending in my pajamas to go through cabinets and closets and start putting things in piles to take to sell or take to the thrift store. It’s time to look at potential differently.
As I began the process of undecorating post-Christmas, I managed to pull about 1/3 of the décor and wrapping paper out of the closet in our hallway and put it in a pile and a couple of boxes to donate. Even some cute vintage stuff, even some handmade things I bought from artist friends. I’ve enjoyed them, but Marie Kondo would be proud of my determination to pass them along to bring others joy. I also went through a large stash of vinyl records that had been sitting on a shelf, reeking with potential but not being played. Next up, kitchen cabinets.
As I think about the year ahead, and more years to come, I’m realizing there is a lot of potential to be found in letting go. Letting go of old habits that were created when I was trying to find solutions to challenging situations will bring me peace. Letting go of drawers full of art supplies that aren’t being used will make space for new ideas. Letting go of items in my kitchen cabinets will allow me to create a kickass cocktail station.
Letting go of things that I held on to when I was trying to create a sense of comfort and security – because who are we if not the things we own??? – will open up the potential for so many new experiences and opportunities to come. I want to be lighter in my spirit, and it seems, for me, that the first step to getting there is becoming lighter in my physical world. I’m welcoming the potential that having less will bring.
What are you letting go of in 2024?
Art room storage images, left: Kerry Goulder, Where Women Create Spring 2016; right: Nikki McWilliams, Where Women Create June/July 2018.