After years of a messy linen closet I decided to take everything out and see what I have and organize it better. I have all my mother's linens plus my own as well as some from my father's mother. I'm not one for one buying new stuff, so everything is venerable and there's a lot of memories.

For example, there's a blue twin size electric blanket that came from my sister. After college in 1972 she was in a dietetic internship at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. She was engaged at the time to guy she ended up marrying, but that didn't stop her from going to the bars and meeting new guys. The blanket was given to her by 'Vern' a National Cash Register (NCR) employee from Pittsburgh who was in Dayton for training. She went to Pittsburgh to visit him, and he bought that electric blanket for her because she said it was cold in the housing she had in Dayton. I have no idea what she said to Vern when it was time to come back to Colorado and get married - probably 'it was fun while it lasted.' She gave me the blanket, and I used it for several years. Now, the controls are lost, and I was saving it to use for a moving blanket someday. But I have lots of other 'moving blankets' and no plans to move.

Plus, and this is why I've decided to send it to the landfill: While it was folded up in the far corner of the linen closet a mouse used it for nest - and died there. There is mouse poop and a skeleton, and old fur stuck to the blanket. Yes, I could wash it, but not going to waste the water and time to deal with it. Can't give it to thrift store because it's not sellable.

And there's so much more - dish towels, pillow cases, bedspreads. I was resolved to look at them with a cold eye and get rid of anything that is stained or developing holes. Oh, but that's easier said than done. There's kitchen things I bought when I was just out of college and then as a newlywed, and seeing them reminds me of those days. I did throw away a couple of pot holders that are getting raggedy and I have similar (but not as special) ones to replace them. But guess what - they are near the top of the trash, so there is still a chance of them getting rescued. We'll see ...