Hard Work and Good

In dealing with paper, one is often advised to handle an item only once while deciding to keep, toss, or donate to charity. I violated that rule yesterday, in hauling out from my walk-in closet boxes and boxes of family memorabilia.  I'm talking mostly letters and pictures, but the avalanche included other things, such as the incredibly beautiful and complex, one-of-a-kind greeting cards for me alone, made by my Japanese daughter-in-law.  Those, I would never give away.
I had already made a first pass at the stuff in the closet, but clearly, had saved too much, so did it again, managing to discard, consolidate, and otherwise improve the save/throwaway ratio.
Got started on rearranging the garage, as I want that to be my holding area.  I'm determined to have specific areas for thrift store, consignment or flea market, and "to go" items.
My friend came about 12:30 and we went into high gear: She got the books and other stuff off the remaining high shelf in the study, moved a multitude of containers into the garage, did the same for the heavy bookcase from the study, and moved my grandmother's high boy bureau (I hate to let go of this, but it's so damaged I think it would be prohibitive to repair) to the curb.*
She removed most of the items from the higher shelf (there are two) in the laundry room.  These are mostly "once a year," items, which have evolved into "almost never."  There were two turkey platters, an second coffee maker for when I have a lot of guests (haven't for years), and other items, once vital to my happiness, now just a drag on my plans.
Abandoning the step stool, she got the ladder out of the garage and took the artifacts down from the tops of the cabinets in the kitchen. These are up at the ceiling, nine feet high and included some fairly mundane baskets and some rather nice ceramic pieces.  We moved my fourteen thousand books--oh, I have plenty more--that practically filled the guest room into her SUV, and did a number of other of other more minor chores.
We finished about 3:30--well, I did, my friend being fully prepared to work until dark (and I consider myself energetic!), but I was ready to call it a day.  When it came to work, that is: She invited me up for dinner and 'nuff said.  She drove off, I tidied up a bit, then jumped happily into my car for the forty-or-so-mile trip up 539.
Got there, we walked to the really excellent Italian restaurant in town (I think it would compare to the best in Italy itself), which was jammed packed.  Had a wonderful meal, part of which we took home, walked back, I said goodbye, and zoomed home.
A fine day: Lots accomplished toward my goal and convivial time spent with my friend and her husband.  More of the usual hard work today, of course, and I'm actually looking forward to it.
* Just got back from our walk and was delighted to realize that my grandmother's bureau is no longer at the curb.  I hope whoever took it restores it and is able to use it happily for years.