Corer Smorer. When Apples Ruled the Earth.

My apple corer paid for itself today. Not only did it pay for itself, I’m pretty sure it paid for the melon baller and the lemon zester too.

I made a huge batch of apple butter this afternoon – the yummiest smelling, sweetest tasting, most awesome apple butter in the world (this claim has yet to be proven by the FDA).

My sister brought over two huge bags of crab apples from SuperMum’s tree the other day and I decided to cook some of them up into yummy goodness.

It’s one of those situations where the item that saved the day is one that could have probably made it’s way into one of the donate or sell piles currently sitting in the garage. But it didn’t, and now it never will. It has officially proven itself too useful to give away.

How do you decide that something is worth keeping or has earned a spot in one of those piles? Once you decide to put it in one of those piles, what’s going to stop you from needing it in the future?

Granted, I probably could have made apple butter without the apple corer and been just fine (though most likely with a lot more swearing and throwing of things) but it most certainly would have gotten done all the same. But it has me thinking about the whole uncluttering and simplification process I’m currently going through.

I’m not having second thoughts, not by any means. But it’s making me realize that the process is 90% of the experience, not just the stuff. Rather than blindly and ruthlessly going through our things, I’m going to be a bit more thoughtful about it, really think about the usefullness of something before I toss it in one of those piles.

My cowboy hat I bought on a whim three years ago because I almost went to Big Valley Jamboree? Definitely going in the give away pile (I look awful in a cowboy hat!) but my apple corer? I think I’m going to keep it – even if it only gets used twice a year. I think in the future when I’m making big batches of apple butter for the kidlets I’m going to thank myself for keeping that one.