Something For Sunday

I always thought it would be fun to explore an old attic full of trunks and boxes. But, I did discover when I had my organizing business that attics were mostly dirty, dusty places full of junk--a place where people stick crap they don't know what else to do with. I quickly decided that I would not do attics, basements or garages in my business. Besides being dirty, there were also creepy crawly things. No way did I want to deal with that!

So, even though I still had that attic fantasy in my mind, little did I know that the treasures would be found in our very own attic.

When Morgan was here a couple weeks ago, I told her that I thought there was a box of costumes in the Christmas closet. That’s not the attic—it’s a real closet (and it’s cool. One of the things that sold me on this house 25 years ago). Butch couldn't find the costumes. 

Fast forward to the new furnace installation last week--AFTER Halloween. Inside the Christmas closet is the access to the attic. Well, when the installers finished, Butch noticed a few random things in that attic (we have three attics). There was a big orange pumpkin bag--the kind you fill with leaves so it looks like a giant pumpkin on your lawn. Butch brought it down and it was all dusty and yuck! Inside were a tangle of different costumes. Most were kids costumes. Some were moth eaten and some were actually rotted. I decided that I was going to wash them up and see what we had. 

When the load was finished, I had a huge mess on my hands. I guess the water and agitation for the washer made some of those costumes disintegrate. I had tiny bits of costume all over the inside of the washer. Also, it was black! I thought I had ruined the washer.

I grabbed a trash bag and started shoveling everything in to it. What a mess! Gone are the witch's costume, nun costume, bumble bee costume and convict costume. I hadn't washed the angel costume or the 50's poodle skirt and letter sweater yet. I ended up throwing those away too. The angel wings were all bent up and the sweater was moth eaten. 

Now to attend to my black washer. I was not happy. I went ahead and ran it again--empty. When the wash cycle was over, it was perfectly clean and new again!! All the little shredded bits washed out and the black was gone! Hallelujah!

One thing we didn't find was Stephanie's California raisin costume. I guess that since it was just a black plastic trash bag filled with crumpled newspaper we didn't save it. Steph swears she's scarred from that one! What can I say. I hated trying to think of costumes. 

Oh, and one more thing. That bag of costumes wasn't even the box I thought I had up there. Who knows where that is. It contains the "I Dream of Jeanne" costume, two more nun costumes and a doctor costume. Maybe it's still hidden in the attic. That's okay, let someone else find it!

Moral of this story: nothing good comes out of the attic!