I’m pretty sure I mentioned to you that while Butterfly was cavorting in Hawaii, my sister, Kathy, and I were busy cleaning her house.  Butterfly was gone for 2 weeks.  Kathy and I didn’t finish the job.  We ran out of time.  Let me put it this way:  Butterfly is a collector of all things bright, shiny, soft, useful, useless and clever.  Or whatever happens to catch her eye.  On top of that, people, all people, feel compelled to give her things.  These things are usually butterfly-themed.  People, I’m here to tell you she does … not … need … one … more … thing.

 

What Kathy and I did accomplish was cleaning everything in plain sight.  We had a huge collection of things for Butterfly to peruse upon her return and she agreed that the vast majority of it could be donated!  She had so many things crammed into a small space that she couldn’t see half of them.  Her house still clearly looks like Butterfly lives there, but now it is a little more manageable.

 

Now we are tackling her cupboards and drawers, which are also crammed.  For instance, she has a kitchen drawer that is full of envelopes.

 

“Look,” I said to Kathy when I opened it, “I found where she files her mail!”  Then I looked a little more carefully.  “What the heck?  Almost all of the envelopes are EMPTY!  Why is she saving empty envelopes?”  Neither of us knew.  These are envelopes that she had received mail in and had tossed out the contents.

 

When Butterfly called me from Hawaii one night, I asked her, “What’s up with the drawer full of empty envelopes in the kitchen?”

 

She laughed and said, “So you found those, did you?”

 

“Not funny,” I said, “tell me why you have them!”

 

“Well, I use them,” she said.

 

“FOR WHAT???”

 

“Each month I write on the back of the envelope what I spend my money on and slip the receipts inside,” she explained.

 

“Ok, so you need what, 12 a year?  You do realize there are more envelopes coming in the mail every day, don’t you?  Why do you have hundreds?” I asked.

 

Again she laughed (apparently she cracks herself up) and said, “Ok, ok, save 2 for me and recycle the rest.”

 

As I said, we cleaned everything in plain sight.  We have just begun to tackle cupboards and drawers.  And no, we haven’t yet gotten to the drawer full of envelopes.  But we will.  Our most recent project was cleaning out beneath her kitchen and bathroom sinks, as well as the storage areas under the stairs (we only got half way with that one – we almost suffocated on the gazillions of plastic grocery bags she was saving).

 

I must share with you the treasures from yesteryear that we uncovered.

 

Far back under the kitchen sink, I was quickly returned to my childhood when I spied this:

 

 

 

This was the squirt bottle she used for the ironing, and that I used as soon as I got big enough to iron.  I think I’ve seen her iron twice in the last 12 years, so I’m not sure why she hung onto this.  And she came to my house both times to use my iron and ironing board, since there was no way she could have found her iron.  We found it behind all those plastic grocery bags.

 

Another treasure I found under the stairs (who remembered that there we actually shelves behind all those grocery bags?) was this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butterfly used this for such tasks as making sausage, grinding nuts and making potato pancakes.

 

Only part of the original box survives.

 

 

 

 

When I first saw this I asked Butterfly where the rest of the plates were.  Then I read more closely and it says that the “food chopper” comes with plate #3; the others cost 35 cents each.

 

 

 

How’s that for a price tag?  Relatively speaking, the plates were pretty expensive, which explains why Butterfly never bought them.

 

Since the original box was falling apart, Butterfly slipped it into a replacement box (as you now know, she never throws away anything).

 

 

 

Next I pulled a crumpled brown paper bag from the shelves under the stairs.  In it was “Handy Hannah” – remember her?

 

 

 

 

I’m here to tell you that this beauty actually works!

 

Last but not least, I found this:

 

 

This was the pitcher that she filled with Kool-Aid when we were kids.  Cherry was my favorite flavor.  And there was none of that sugar-free nonsense!   The sweeter, the better!

 

And now I must share a current treasure.  Butterfly just trotted down the hill with a plant in hand.

 

“You have to come outside and take a picture of this spider lily,” she ordered.  “It’s the only one we have blooming.”

 

 

Yes, ma’am.  Who am I to argue?