I think my boxes are regenerating.

I was helping my mom look for a picture that she had put away in a safe place (read: a place that made no sense and hence, the reason she couldn’t find it) and guess what I found? Another box full of my crap.

Did you think I was kidding when I said that my mom and dad’s house was a Museum of Me? As much as I’ve tried to leave their nest empty, the stuff somehow manages to hide from me.

It also should come as no surprise that among the contents of this box were Beanie Babies. That’s right – more Beanie Babies to add to the 100+ beanies that I donated to a good home last year.

This is what I found:

Holiday beanies (Valentine’s Day, 4th of July and Easter).

Birthday beanies. I was born the Year of the Horse and every few years my birthday falls on Thanksgiving.

Graduation beanies. Apparently, it was necessary to have two of them to commemorate the culmination of my academic career.

Random liberal beanie, miniature Christmas stocking and assorted tag protectors.

That concludes the beanie portion of this post. On to the rest of the random stuff.

Monsters, Inc. toys from McDonald’s Happy Meals (Mike Wazowski, The Abominable Snowman, George Sanderson and Randall).

Hallmark ornaments.

An I Love Lucy lunch box (I really do love her – but not in colored, lunch box form) and a pumpkin candle.

And my favorite: mementos (pictures and ticket stubs) from a relationship I haven’t been in for about 9 years.

I don’t usually pack random things like this together. My guess is that when I moved out of my parents’ house, my mom packed up some of the things I had left behind.

So what to do with all this stuff? I allowed myself to keep the holiday and birthday beanies. I did, however, promise myself that I would get rid of them if I didn’t display them on their respective holidays. I thought that was fair. The Hallmark ornaments also stayed, as did the pumpkin candle.

As for the ex-boyfriend stuff, I decided to deal with it later along with the box full of ex-boyfriend stuff that fills up one of the five boxes in my parents’ garage that I have yet to go through. I can’t wait (insert eye roll here)!

Everything else will be donated. Good riddance!

P.S. In case you’re wondering, my mom and I never found that picture.

Tags: Beanie Babies, childhood clutter, declutter, Hallmark ornaments, Happy Meal toys, memorabilia, memory clutter, Monsters Inc.