Who Doesn’t Love a Room Full of Garbage?

The first time my husband and I saw the large, vaulted sunroom attached to the home we would eventually end up purchasing, I remember my husband commenting, “This is a big space and we are going to have to be careful to not fill it up with garbage and junk.”  He spoke the words, the universe complied, and instead of using the room as a dropping place for hefty bags when the snow is too deep to trudge to the outdoor garbage, he has filled the room with his treasures and collectibles. Some of these items are actual garbage in the form of used tickets from Broadway plays and concerts, empty cups from Disney and Vegas, a pizza box from the real Mystic Pizza in Connecticut, a cannoli box from Modern Pastry in Boston, bottle caps from all over the Caribbean, drink swizzles from all over the world, and family treasures and belongings that were too important to just throw away.

Each trip to the sunroom allows us to travel back in time to revisit countries and the stories of each trip, as well as why and how the souvenir displayed was chosen and obtained. People may look at the collection of sand bottles from the Caribbean and see only sand, but my husband and I will joke about my decision to swim from the tour boat to the beach in Martinique to collect sand for him and me underestimating the distance. We will then laugh about how sketchy the tour was that we were on and that no tour group should allow overweight Americans to swim unsupervised in the open sea, as evidenced by the tour group having to rescue three other overly ambitious swimmers. There is a large Chinese vase in the sunroom that was purchased by my father in-law in Mexico. When the vase was finally taken to the landfill in Sheridan, MT almost 20 years ago, I made my husband turn the truck around and we rescued the vase. The little-known secret is that my father-in-law used the vase to smuggle tequila across the US/Mexican border. We proudly display my dad’s ’61 Stevensville High School letterman’s jacket, my mom’s wine bottle craft projects, grandpa’s snowshoes and hats and t-shirts from our sons’ past jobs. The trolls on one of the top shelves are not toys, but rather were the cake topper from my in-law’s wedding cake. The room has hosted prom dinners for our kids, Bucking Horse barbecues for friends and college classmates, bunco parties, holiday meals, and family celebrations.

We spend summer mornings drinking coffee in the sunroom, as well as evenings watching thunderstorms roll in and reminiscing about the travels and family members recalled by the souvenirs and treasures that are in eyesight. Everywhere you sit in the sunroom provides a different vantage point and a new opportunity to reminisce and recall good memories. It is o.k. to be quiet in the sunroom and let time slip away. The sunroom is our happy place, and my husband will spend hours on the porch rearranging the treasures and making room for newly acquired treasures from travel. He often jokes that the sunroom is his “real life scrapbook.” Who would have thought that a room full of “garbage” could bring so much enjoyment!