The shoebox challenge

A couple of weekend ago, I had myself a mini shoebox challenge which instead of being an exercise demonstrating how much clutter I have became more about building a writer's archive.

The prelude to the challenge is that hubby and I are going to be a one flat family come the middle of October as the flat by the race course will be no more. Now just to clarify before someone reads too much into this - we have only been living in one flat, but the second flat has proved itself very useful for keeping duplicate belongings. With this in mind; the nice cupboard under the built-in bookcase has been turned into a tool cupboard and I had to rehouse the variety of shoeboxes that I had kept safety out of eye sight for the last eight years.

Now as you may have guessed the boxes do not continue shoes but a collection of belongings; from postcards to letters and newspaper cuttings that I have collected throughout my life and some of which belonged to other members of my family; which I am safe keeping. As you can see from the photo above it is not a stable tower and when I tried to fit them all in my box room office, within an hour of them being in their new room they collapsed and created a shower of 30 odd years of memories over all the floor. Doing this on a Friday night with alcohol resulted in the scattered memories being left on the floor when I went to bed in a mood and feeling weight down with what to the outside eye appeared to be nothing but clutter.

Saturday came and a brighter mood saw a new challenge - I could get organised so with a tape measure and the trusted iPad I measured up and bought proper archive boxes. The shoe boxes would be no more and it felt fantastic. The original premise for the shoes boxes had been to use them to collect things in; but as collection grew they didn't really hold everything they needed and therefore they ended up being a mess of things of importance in with silly things; which makes it harder to review; harder to sort and harder to throw away things I don't need. When all the shoe boxes collapsed; it felt like a washing pile with a million pair of black socks to pair up and yet by buying new boxes I was able to see all shades of black and remember why they were treasured possessions.

Now at the start of the blog; I said I was building a writer's archive rather than collecting clutter so here's a flavour of ideas that the box bring:

(1) One of the boxes continue scripts, at least three are unpublished works that can be explored and maybe sent to a publisher.

(2) There are 500 + postcards documenting travels around the world and inspiring pictures. What is the line from the song "A picture paints a thousand words.... "

(3) Staying with the postcards; there are some really old postcards that belonged to family members; which can either be used for investigating  family history or understanding the world before World War 2; where signs and symbols had a whole different meanings.

(4) A newspaper archive filled with filed newspaper cuttings ranging from local news about Braco right through to international events on world stage. This box reminded me of the Kate Adie dream I had when I was about 11 and wanted to travel the world writing news.

The lists goes on; there is about a thousand ideas in nine boxes ranging from history to fiction to autobiographical writing. It is all there for me; catalogue and waiting for me for me to get started. I don't think writer's block will be a problem in the new world of freelance!

It is funny none of these belongings are new to me but organising them have brought them back to life and me back to life. It is strange I am building the life I have dreamt about and I am living the life I once only believed only was true in fairy stories.