An Etsy buyer got this for her daughter's Pooh Bear themed baby shower and sent a story!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Disney new vintage Winnie the Pooh Easy Reader book, available here
For some reason I kept a lot of new books in my teacher emergency kits and as a hoarder, I had several emergency kits! I taught at a year round school, which meant I moved through three class rooms a year if it was my turn to rove.
Not only did I have an emergency backpack in each one, but I had a huge duffel bag in the trunk of my car with enough water and food for a class of 30 to last 3 days and nights! It's mandatory for teachers in California to be prepared to stay with their students for three days or until all their students are picked up by parents in case of an emergency disaster, like an earthquake!
My school took this quite seriously and had even mapped out the fastest route for me to walk home, in case the worse happened! Yes, it was scary for me when they handed me a highlighted map and told me to estimate how long it would take me to walk home! It was a lot of work just practicing the emergency drills once or twice every month with 30 students sitting in the hot sun!
However, I did work at an inner city school that was by a street with the highest murder rate in the city and I had missed being in the 90s riots by one hour and did not go to work for three days due to them, so I guess my school was being extra cautious!
These Pooh Bear books were part of my emergency kits and I think I had 15, so I had something to teach with for 3 days in an emergency situation. It's so crazy to think back on all those emergency drills now. I had 35 lift up and erase scribble pads too! Kept students busy for hours during those drills!
Mine had the alphabet on them to learn cursive
photo via google
Whoa! No wonder I've procrastinated forever on writing this post with the Pooh Bear books! What memories bubbled to the surface and I am so happy I will most likely never have to do another emergency drill with 30 students ever again! I will say, for me as a teacher, a planned or surprise emergency drill is still better than a field trip any day!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Disney new vintage Winnie the Pooh Easy Reader book, available here
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
The Saggy Baggy Elephant, new vintage available here
Now that I'm retired, I can thank my lucky stars and relax while I watch the clouds turn into things, just like Pooh bear! I can concentrate on my dehoarding and be thankful for stories Etsy buyers send me!
Yes, back to the original story.... so an Etsy buyer needed this ASAP for her daughter's Pooh Bear themed baby shower and instead of giving her cards they were giving her and the new baby books!
How fun is that! The little one would have his or her library waiting for them with books from all kinds of special people from relatives to friends! And I bet they are all ready to read a fun story out loud to them too!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Disney new vintage Winnie the Pooh Easy Reader book, available here
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
The Sleepy Book available here
Speaking of baby showers, my Mom saved many of my baby shower cards and many other things, like a list of gifts to write thank yous and some of the funny drawings from games. And of course, lots of photos. My Mom kept a baby book for us and it is one our prized possessions! Over the years, we've looked through them many times.
I also have many books from my childhood. Snoopy, Joan Walsh Anglund and some of the first pop up books. I'll have to go hoard diving for them now.
photo via The Destiny of Things
Disney new vintage Winnie the Pooh Easy Reader book, available here
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
The Tootle, available here
Saying Goodbye: I am so thankful that this book went to a Mother with the great idea to give her daughter books, instead of cards for her baby shower! I think it's such a fun idea! No one can have too many books, right?
What I Learned:
1. I still have battle scars and wounds that hurt from my inner city teaching days. It's good that some unpleasant memories are coming to the surface and being let go, so I can make room for new more pleasant ones.
2. Some of my hoarded items hold just as many stressful memories as good ones! I feel good about accepting my anxiety filled stressful memories and dealing with them before I let them go, instead of burying them deeper until they slowly boil to the top to be pushed down again. Maybe it'll help me let go of things more easily now and move on with my life.
3. Even though I knew I had to do something about my hoard, at first it was a little to a whole lot scary thinking about my life without hoard, but now I'm looking forward to it more than being scared by it. However, on some days I know that hoarding or retail therapy shopping would be easy instant gratification and would feel like a quick fix, but in the long run I'd be living a viscous cycle again.
It's still a daily battle, but it looks like I'm winning the war!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
Theodore Mouse Goes to Sea, new vintage available here
Thank you Etsy buyer from The Destiny of Things
for leaving me an email! What a fun party idea of switching out cards for books! Your
story provided me with a lot to think about towards my hoarding ways and motivated me to go hoard diving for my childhood books and to revisit my baby book! Thank you so much!
Thank you Etsy for helping me make my dehoarding more enjoyable and fun by sending me
Etsy buyers who send email stories to keep me moving forward.
Thank you readers from all over the world for supporting my HoarderRehab and The Destiny of Things ! Your support by visiting is much appreciated.
photo via The Destiny of Things
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
We Help Mommy, new vintage available here
I reached my goal of listing 200 items in all four shops last week!
Yeah!!! Pat on the back, high fives and standing ovations with a round
of applause! Again please! Thank you!
So my new dehoarding goal is to list something new daily or weekly at each shop until I reach 205 at all four shops!
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed daily or weekly: HoarderRehab with 201 items, The Destiny of Things- 203 items , VintageToGoEasy - 201 items and now JunkDrawerAndMore - 204 items! Maybe you'll find something to take home and share your story too! Thanks for looking!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
Scuffy the Tugboat, used vintage available here
Scuffy the Tugboat, new vintage available here
Related Stories:
1. Very difficult teacher school item to let go: The Destiny of Things: Freddie the Frog Puppet, Story XII
2. My childhood planters: Joan Walsh Anglund Childhood Planters: The Destiny of Things Story LXIII
8. One of my favorite book stories from an Etsy buyer: Baton Twirling Book-Perfect Birthday Gift: The Destiny of Things, Story LX
photo via The Destiny of Things
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
The Sleepy book, new vintage available here
The Sleepy Book used vintage available here
Hoarder Rehab Tip #7: I take a lot of baby steps!
For me, feeling overwhelmed is common place as hoarder and recovering hoarder and for me, I find it best to take baby steps and motivate myself with rewards, like a dangling carrot.
I do have a written out plan on how it's best for me to dehoard and where to dehoard, but it keeps changing and that's okay with me because it's better than me not doing anything! or worse yet quitting!
What do I do when I feel overwhelmed with baby steps? I take smaller steps! I might be going at a snail's pace, but I'm still going!
For instance, one of my daily tasks is to spend 15 minutes in the worst
room or the room that needs it the most. I even set a timer for 15
minutes. When the timer goes off, I'm done! I smile and give myself a
sticker in my calendar.
When or if I get overwhelmed with it all, I just focus on a smaller space, like my sewing desk top instead of a room or make dehoarding into little breaks with only 5 minutes of cleaning up here and there.
One thing I've learned.... all those baby steps start to add up and make a difference! A difference that I can see, even if it has been a couple years!
Now if I could only apply this concept with my fried food love (which is one of my long term rewards) and exercising on a regular basis (which I start for about 2 weeks and then forget about when I get too sore)! The ever evolving me!
photo via The Destiny of Things
Other pocket travel books, like Little Little Golden books that were in my emergency kit,
Tootle, new vintage available here
"DNA is the data, but the soul is the story and that's the essence of life." ---Season 1, Episode 9, in my case, my hoard is the memory data....
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