merely a trifle.

Clue is my favorite board game; it has been ever since I was a kid. Although I enjoyed the process of figuring out who "killed" who, I enjoyed much more imagining that I lived in the Clue mansion and could sit in my big Clue library or throw a dinner party in the Clue dining room.

I found this "trifle" at an estate sale last Saturday, and while I was thinking of putting them up on Etsy, I think I'm going to keep them for something. Looking at the cards took me right back to being a kid - I could just imagine hosting my dinner party with those pretty floral dishes...or talking to my BFF in the lounge on that awesome retro phone!

And while I have recently been going "treasure hunting" at estate sales, I've learned a good lesson about accumulating too much stuff - whether for a collection or just for sentimental reasons. The last few I have been to were sales of bona-fide hoarders.

It all ties together as I am reminded that one of the best quotes about organizing life comes from Sherlock Holmes...

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." (From "A Study in Scarlet")

So, my Clue cards are merely a trifle, but as Holmes also says, "It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles."