My dad saved the boxes and the Styrofoam for every appliance he bought. He also filed the owner's manuals, so when I did his estate I put all of this stuff back together again. It wasn't necessary. They make boxes and stuff you can use to pad things. Go buy a new one if you ever actually need it.

I attacked two hall closets tonight. Whew! Coats I didn't know I had, my old NPS uniform jackets, and things my sister sent I'd forgotten all about. A couple of Mom's WAC uniforms, and stuff that she bought at the opening of the Women's War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the early 1990s. Old uniforms sound interesting, but think about the millions of them out there. So I'll look around to see if museums are interested but in the end may donate them to a local theater group. I did that with some old fur coats years ago. I have one of those I should get rid of also, come to think of it.

One shelf had a gazillion duffels and cloth bags. I sorted them by type (I've been meaning to take them shopping with me and not bring home so much plastic) and organized what I'm keeping (3/4 of them--they do get used off and on, when I remember they're there). Some will go in the truck for shopping, others will just go in the truck for that bag you sometimes need for some durable or scuzzy reason. Throw aways if need be.

I have a fibre trash bag going now for the thrift store. The stuff that I'm dedicating to the rag brokers. Old cotton sweat pants, old airline Dacron pillows. Into the sack.

SRS