De-junking

It is a big trend now these days.  Make do with less. Clear out, throw away, or donate!  Less is more.  The whole Marie Kondo fad.  Being minimalists.  Information about it is everywhere.  It is not a bad idea, especially when you have lived in the same house for over 20 years.  And when your basement floods when you are in Europe, you have an additional reason to start the whole process.  More about that later as we are boxing up our basement to repaint ad recarpet--a project which will extend far into next year.  Pictures at that time of the before and after.

But one evening, I decided to dejunk my cook book and recipe shelf.  It was a mess and considering I don't really like to cook and cook a small variety of things, it seemed like something I should do.

The Before photo:

The In the middle photo:

The Sentimental Tears-in-my-eyes moments as I held and remember the sweet sisters and YW who gave me recipes when Gary and I got married in 1978.  Now mind you, I haven't used most of these recipes, but the people were important to me--the Lovetts, Masseys, Kathy Gregersen, Cindy Williams, Shelly Stevens, the names go on.  I took photos and sent them to my sister who loved these people, too.  The good people of the Amarillo Ward!  How could I throw them away--but really, I didn't need them. I didn't use them, so after sharing a moment with my sister with photos, I did throw them away.

 I was the MiaMaid leader at the time, but the Beehives gave me a crepe recipe.

So I took the recipes that I actually use and put them in this notebook.  I copied the recipes that I used from the many I had and put them in this book as well.  Then I donate the cookbooks to the DI.

And this is what it looks like now.

If you come to my house, I do still have some cute cookbooks on a basket in my kitchen.  They are the ones I have used when I want to try something new or I just like how they look--I mean who can donate a BYU cookbook?

And then Thanksgiving dinner came and I realized that I had donate the cookbook with the recipe I have used for dressing for many many years.  Couldn't find one that was exactly the same so we branched out this year!  But that is what happens when you de-junk--you discover things you wish that you had kept.  Oh, well, thank heavens for the internet!