Wednesday, July 27, 2011

3 Bottles

I love these bottles. They are a Big Red and a Green River soda bottle that I got at a fruit market in Eastern Washington, on a trip with my family when I was between ages 10 and 12. I've always liked weird things. Both of these sodas are still manufactured, but the bottles are printed differently. In the Big Red bottle is some red sand from some random chunk that Cree & I found when we were walking along the train tracks by my parents' house in middle school. The third bottle is a Blue Lemonade Jones Soda bottle circa 2003. It has Peaches on the label. It still has some blue soda residue in it. The tray they are on is a 50s laminate tray with wooden handles.

I have decorated with the first two bottles since I was 10 or 12, and the 3rd since 2003. When we moved from Bellingham, my mom laughed and was like "Isn't it time to let these go?" and I was like "NO WAY." Through all my decluttering, these have stayed. I did get rid of a Sioux City Sasparilla, a Coca-Cola 2005 "1 year til the Olympics", and a really really old Sprite that was fished out of my parents' lake, a few months ago. But these 3 I am seriously attached to.

The green vase in the photo above broke in our last move. The lamp is in our dining room now. I am getting rid of the fake flowers because they, well, collect dust, and eliminating dust is my motivation right now. I put the white vase in a kitchen cabinet; I couldn't quite bear to part with it, but I did change out a glass vase to get rid of.

If I eliminated every other "knick-knack" in the bedroom, it wouldn't be too much to dust these 3 bottles daily (which is my plan, once the bedroom is decluttered). I know they may be "sentimental clutter", but I truly do love them. Do they make my heart sing? Well, yeah, they kinda do! Would anyone else get more enjoyment out of them than I do? HIGHLY UNLIKELY. I'll give them some more time. My goal is not to eliminate everything, my goal is to have less dust.

3 comments:

Zan said...

This goes back, I think, to the phrase "Is it useful, beautiful, or loved?" I don't think your bottles are very useful at all (in their current state at least) and I really don't think they're beautiful (sorry) - (I do "get it" though. I just got around to getting rid of a Sarsparilla bottle of my own last month). But you love them! You are aware that you don't need to love every bottle or keep every memento, but if these make your heart sing, then you're golden. It's all about what makes you happy, right? :)

I really like this vignette btw. And I love that lamp. Gorgeous.

Zan said...

Oh yeah, I'm also very amused that your bottles are in color, so to speak. That's cool. Especially with the red sand in the red soda bottle. (I'm not so sure about the blue residue. Lol.) What's in the green one?

K.D. said...

Awesome lamp! I'm all about de-cluttering and not at all minimalist. The way I see it is that the things we really love bring us joy when we can enjoy them (such as when they aren't buried in other stuff). If these bottles make you smile inside, then that's all good.