It’s a new year.  A time to take stock of the past, find our feet in the present and consider the future.

We’ve spent some special time with extended family over the Christmas period.  Our Elfie got up to all sorts of mischief again, as he does every year, (he particularly likes to show off for our young nieces) but he has now settled down for his long, lazy sleep until next season.

I quite fancy a few long, lazy sleeps myself but alas, that would not bring us any closer to our Over to France dream.  So it’s back to the project.  This week we are concentrating on clearing out our back shed.  Ah, dear Back Shed.  How I have loved to loathe thee over the years.  We were kindly given this shed many years ago by a friend who no longer needed it.  At the time, we had an old pot-belly fireplace, and we used the shed as a place to store our firewood.  It is made of galvanised steel sheets, and although once quite respectable it has gradually deteriorated and is now a bit of an eyesore in our back garden.  Our fireplace has long since been removed and the wood supply is no longer needed.  I did discover a fair bit of the pile was still there though.  It was hidden under a tarpaulin, which was weighed down by an extremely heavy old and broken boat motor.  A lot of other broken things had also been thrown into the shed over the years, as well as some possibly useful things.  A spade is a useful thing.  I found seven.  I also found two garden hoes, two pitchforks, two rakes, three pairs of pruning shears, and a scary garden instrument which I don’t know the name of.  It’s a twirly bladed thing on a long stick.  You might think I would be delighted at such a find of helpful tools, particularly as I love to garden.  It’s just that, apart from the twirly blade thing, we already have at least one of each of those items in our garage.  Somehow, we have managed to inherit these extra tools from various places, probably when others were decluttering their own sheds.

But wait, there’s more.  Twenty-six bike wheels – which would be quite bizarre were it not for the fact that Clive has previously owned an e-bike business.

And I also found one of our boys’ first skateboards – made of yellow plastic with multi-coloured wheels.  That was a bit of a heart-pangy moment.

At about this time last year, I went through this same process in our roof attic.  That was pre-France, so not motivated by a dream as such,  but instead by an infestation of rats.  I know!  Ewwww!  The rats had managed to get into our attic by climbing up trees that were overhanging our roof (never again will we allow tree branches anywhere near our roof, trust me!).  The nasty visitors had thankfully departed, but their debris was everywhere and through everything!  Some things were salvageable, others had to be thrown out.  They even ate my leather tap shoes, the cheeky things.  I wore a haz-mat suit for the task by the way, and that, coupled with the fact that roof attics become extremely hot during the day, AND I had to crawl on my tummy for a lot of it, made it a particularly unpleasant ordeal.  But I got there in the end.  Loads of clutter gone.  The area completely disinfected and re-ordered.  Rat traps in place, just in case.

Yes, the rats even had a munch on my poor doll’s hair. Was a bit of a Nightmare on Toy Story Street, honestly!

Lessons have been learnt.   The main one – and I say this sternly to my sons as well as myself (and Clive, although he just tends to roll his eyes), is this…

Be Careful What You Acquire and Be Careful What You Hold Onto.

And now I’m going to get a bit navel-gazey and thoughtful (inspired by a discussion with my younger but very wise brother).

It’s not just the physical clutter we need to look at sorting through.  It’s also our thoughts and beliefs.

Damaging words said to us, even years ago, may have taken a hold in our lives and wrongly shaped our behaviour and thoughts.

Past failures may still be taunting us.

Our own judgmental thoughts of others may be sitting quite comfortably, perhaps not even recognised, in their lofty and prideful places in our minds.

A good all-round decluttering every once in a while is a good thing, I reckon.  A bit of sorting through the things that are no longer needed, or in fact should never have been acquired in the first place.

The tricky part is, those things we’ve held onto for way too long, are often buried and hard to get to.  It requires time, effort and perseverance.  It’s not always a comfortable process.  But once uncovered and sorted, it’s a really good feeling.  And it makes going forward, just that much easier.

I’m mindful though, that some things are definitely worth holding onto.  There are physical items that might not be particularly useful, but are precious because they are reminders of special times or precious people.  And then there are good thoughts, truths and memories that encourage and inspire. These need to be brought to mind often.

Three families of people that are dear to us, have lost loved ones over the last few weeks.  Our hearts break for them.  The wonderful gifts of wisdom and love that each of these precious people have left behind, are treasures that will be forever cherished.  Their examples live on. We won’t forget them, nor those they loved.  Beaucoup d’amour pour vous, nos amis.

Et bonne année à tous. xx

What is this thing?