Kids are great when it comes to being ruthless. About those recipes: if your daughter doesn't want them for at least their memories and you will not cook from them, I'd say it's time to let some of them go.

Sometimes I think the only things that are important to keep are those items we know our kids will definitely want one day.

what a great kid!

it sounds like you hit your limit--I think during decluttering, we all hit a point at which we get scared; we feel like we're letting go of too much, it starts to feel out-of-control, we fear we'll have regrets, we start to feel guilty (at rejecting the stuff and at having hung onto it at all).

That's when it's time to stop (or, push on just a little bit, but stop). If we go beyond our "scare point," I think we can discourage ourselves from doing it again.

Bcs you stopped where you did, you can have ONLY great results. Then, when you get brave enough to go through the recipes, in the next session, you can bring into it the great feelings and have them empower you. If you were bringing in regrets and guilt, you might not be as powerful the next time.

So pick a date to do those recipes; you'll surprise yourself at how many of them you don't really need. (just don't do it at a time when you're hungry, LOL!)

There really is nothing like another set of eyes to help us see what's really in front of us.

Why don't you pick a recipe you'd like to cook or bake for your daughter in thanks? Give the recipe a reason for being.

Take care,
-a

Went down in my mom's basement. Saw a green plastic gabage can with lid on tight. Looked inside- nineteen 5-lb bags of sugar. That's 95 pounds! Good lord, the woman is 82 and blind and cannot walk.

wow, Jannie,

is she making her own booze(joke-joke)?

I tend to have the same mind set. My DH worked at a seasonal job for years, so I always stocked up when he was working. Now I have trouble not stocking up. That could be why she has so much stored.

shirley

If your mom is 82, she was in her 20s during the Great Depression. It likely had an impact on her that she internalized for the rest of her life. It's very common for those who lived through that period to "hoard" because ... well, it might happen again someday.

(I saw the same with my ex's mother and aunts, who were the same age, and I even see a little of that with my mother, who was born during the Depression.)

Yes, my mother did have a hard childhood. Her father died young,this was before Social Security, and her mother made their home into a boarding house. When she was a young married woman with four kids,my Dad was unemployed a lot due to illness. So she always bought food on sale and kept a full pantry. But now that she's elderly and infirm, it seems a little unnecessary. I try to watch out for my own hoarding behavior. I am also a clutter-bug, which I am certain was inheirited from both of my parents.The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.