Apres Ski - Really?

The photo above defines my world of crap and clutter, my world of "stuff." This picture is of a pair of Apres Ski Boots given to me for Christmas one year by my parents. I don't remember the exact year (my sister will - she received a pair, too), but I think I was still in college. I graduated from college thirty-one years ago.

Keeping the boots for more than a quarter of a century is not even the real issue here. They are apres ski boots. I don't ski. I tried it once and hated it. It was too cold and my ankles hurt. Sitting in the bar was more to my liking and, I promise, there was not a pair of apres ski boots in sight! Maybe, somewhere in a quaint ski lodge in the Swiss Alps, there are people sitting around drinking hot buttered rum while wearing after ski boots, but I doubt it. However, I am sure that was the scene my mother envisioned when she purchased these boots for her daughters.

As you can see from the photo, the boots are ugly. Also, they do not fit me. My feet have grown a full size since college. The boots aren't even waterproof - so wearing them outside during the occasional winter snow is out of the question. They are fleece-lined, designed to warm the feet after a long day of skiing. My feet have never been so cold as to need to be warmed by fleece-lined boots. And, let me mention once more - they are ugly!

So why have the boots been permanent residents of my closet for all of these years? A few reasons/excuses:

• They became invisible; I never really saw them. I don't mean they were hidden by the other closet "stuff," I mean they have been there so long they just belonged there on the bottom shelf of my closet, next to my work boots. It never occurred to me how idiotic it was to keep them.
• There was probably some sentimental attachment. Subconsciously, I probably thought of my parents when I saw them and remembered Christmases past, when they were still living, and all of the gifts they lovingly gave.
• I also have the "great depression-mentality" inherited from my grandmother. They are still perfectly good boots - why get rid of them?
• Maybe one of my daughters will want them? NO!
• Or perhaps, the real reason I've held on to these boots for so long - maybe I'm not ready to give up on the idea of sitting around an Alpine lodge, drinking warm drinks with my feet, cold from a long day of swooshing down the Alps, swathed in fleece.

But I am banishing all the reasons and excuses. Today the vintage apres ski boots have been relegated to the garage sale box! Let's hope a chalet-owning, Swiss skier attends the sale.