Room to move
Generally I do not make new year resolutions. They are there for the breaking if you ask me.
This year though I did do something perhaps a little like a resolution. The fridge in our kitchen is littered with memories. Photos, cards from cafes, bars and restaurants. Postcards, business cards and images from visited exhibitions.
The thing is, many of the items had been on the fridge a long time. Too long. I had been holding on tightly. Too tightly.
It is not that the people in the photos do not mean as much to me anymore, it is that is time to move forward. For months I would look at the fridge door and think about taking some of the items off. Make way for the new. But I did not.
Last week though I did. The fridge was stripped back. Made clean.
Some images and cards were placed back on. Their meaning or memory needed to gel the old with the new. But many more did not stay. They have been kept; tucked safely in the drawer of an antique dresser. The old holding the old.
It is time to move on. The make new memories.
If I am being honest, many of the images were first placed on the door as a way to show I had a life. Had friends and good times. That is the difficulty of moving to a new place, far from those you know. It can be lonely at times. The need to prove you are loved and love can be strong. The fridge bore the brunt of that need in a tangible way.
So while some things have remained, the fridge is light once more. Not weighed down with the past. Neither am I. The time for the new is here. And now there is room, and not just on the fridge.
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Love it x
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N,
Isn’t it interesting how long we hold the old for reasons that sometimes take a long time to be exposed.
Here’s to making new olds.
K x
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Naomi Reply:
January 14th, 2013 at 10:21 am
It is isn’t it. I love the idea of making new olds. x
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I did the same a while back. Fridge was like an active reminder that I had lived and travelled overseas. I couldn’t let go. Who was I without London, Peru. Nepal? Cleaned all off and scrubbed it clean. Didn’t last long, turns out without travel I’m a mum and he has centre left and right stage on the fridge.
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Naomi Reply:
January 14th, 2013 at 10:22 am
A clean fridge is boring. But at least now is says who you are, not who you were. x
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fabulous x
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Great ideas – I should do this with my fridge too. Declutter.
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Naomi Reply:
January 15th, 2013 at 9:41 am
It felt so much better having done it. Was long overdue, and now I can make new memories.
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We’ve had a big fridge clean here too – but not for highly evolved reasons, just because Joe seems to like magnets and I’ve rescued two from his mouth (and had two heart-attacks, hence the fridge magnet removal and cleaning)
. Yay to looking forward and trusting the memories to your own head and not the fridge 
Enid Bite’Em recently posted..French Children Don’t Throw Food
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Naomi Reply:
January 15th, 2013 at 9:42 am
Magnet eating is not to be encouraged really is it. I’m liking having room for new memories.
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Loved this analogy. If my fridge took magnets I dread to think what it would be holding onto because I don’t really have much of a life! We have one of those matte stainless steel fridges that displays every child’s handprint instead. Never again.
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Naomi Reply:
January 16th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
We had one of those fridges. I covered it with the kids’ art work using blu-tac. I am addicted to a messy fridge it seems.
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[...] I am trying something a little different. It seems this year is at least a little bit about the new. [...]
We have a new fridge and I figured if I never put any photos up there I never have to take them down.
My parents have what I call the death fridge, covered in beautiful photos of amazing people, but they are all bloody dead. Thank god Mum is selling that fridge. ( I hope it doesn’t have a ghost in it!!!)
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Naomi Reply:
January 16th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
I’d sell that fridge too, but perhaps keep the words ghost and death out of any ad!
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