Mary Poppins' Bag

Do you remember when Mary Poppins first shows up at the house of Jane and Michael Banks and to get settled in, she unpacks her giant carpet bag? She pulls out all kinds of things you could never imagine would fit into a bag.

Well, I didn't find a tiffany lamp or a hat rack in my front closet, but I did feel a bit like Ms. Poppins as I tried to de-clutter what was seemingly a tiny little front hall coat closet. Underneath the more than 4 dozen gift bags and "nice" shopping bags, wrapping paper, gift boxes, and storage tubs I found a trove of forgotten objects. First off, a ginormous vacuum thing I bought when we moved in this house to clean the tile floors. Didn't work so well with the style of grout we have, and it has been lost in the front closet for probably about 5 years. (Who loses a giant appliance in a closet so small?). Other winners: my beloved college backpack. Missing for a good 4 or 5 years. There is nothing in it, but it did manage to make its way around Europe with me back in 1994, and I was glad to have it back. And, I think my favorite find: a piece of Stolichnaya Christmas Wrapping Paper designed by Diane Von Furstenburg. Clearly saved for the Book and Booze club Christmas party.

Now that I have pared down the gift bags to the top 5, repurposed the empty wrapping paper storage tub for Fletcher's Legos, and put the giant floor vac in the garage sale pile, I feel confident that I will be able to put my hands on that wacky paper when the party comes aroudn this year. As an added bonus, I have actually hung some coats in this closet. Coats - in a coat closet - crazy! Now we're getting somewhere...