Shower Curtain

Day 77: Shower Curtain

Shower curtains get moldy
after 15 years

Getting rid of one thing a day has changed me. I find myself peering around the house, scowling, looking for things we don't need, much as I peer around the garden looking for weeds. I've started counting unnecessary things. In the garage, there are five things we could get rid of. In the basement, seven. Four more in the attic. Thirty shelves of books.

Emma told me - adamantly - that it is not fair game to count getting rid of something that is not mine. Such as her papers and other detritus from high school, which are going into the recycling this week.

288 days to go. The math's not looking good.

I feel a growing certainty that well before Day 365, I will have gotten rid of every weed in the house. What then? Will I give away things I like - things I use - so I can keep this resolution? It's the opposite of my intention to buy new things because I gave away things I needed. 

I want to  to keep some things I don't need, too. I like having my grandmother's silver. Her bone china cocoa set. Her desert rose Franciscan ware. My souvenir wineglasses from Sonoma. The mystery writer's teapot my father gave me when I finished my novel. Bee stuff. The little wooden racing car Sam made in seventh grade. The raku vase and the little ceramic giraffe whistle Emma made at Blue Lake.

What about getting rid of our nasty old shower curtain, which has black mold on it despite multiple washings? Even though I ordered another to replace it?

Does that count?

Maybe I should have given away one bedsheet a day, instead of piles at a time.