Thursday, May 22, 2008

Scrounging Through Fourteen Years of Stuff

This is it. I've decided to bite the proverbial bullet. We moved into our house in 1994 and I was absolutely thrilled at the wonderful amount of storage it had. We owned nowhere near enough stuff to fill all those shelves, not to mention the big ol' closet under the stairs.

In the ensuing years, however, our stuff has been quietly multiplying under cover of darkness (I deny having had anything to do with it whatsoever!) and is threatening to take over the whole house. It's like something alive, silently filling every shelf and closet, spilling over onto every horizontal surface. And there it sits, looking crosseyed at me and sticking its tongue out.

Studies have proven that clutter has a deleterious effect on mental health and I know for a fact it depresses me. The problem has been the task is so large I didn't know where to start so I'd decide to wait until tomorrow to begin. Well, today is tomorrow! I have been sorting, tossing, lugging, organizing, you name it. When I got all my photos together that have been taken since our wedding in 1975 I realized the few scrapbooks I've done are just the beginning. I have a project ready for a long cold winter, now that everything's in the same place.

I put all my sewing stuff in one place instead of having bits of it here and parts of it there. Since I haven't been in a sewing mood for a while I put the machines and everything in the newly organized closet under the stairs where it will wait happily for the sewing bug to bite me again. All my quilting paraphernalia is tucked away with the rest of the sewing stuff. Now I don't have to feel guilty every time I look at it.

While I was gathering things to donate to the thrift shop I decided to cull the coffee mugs. I swear those things mate when nobody's looking! I pulled eleven mugs out of the cupboard and I still have enough to serve a cup of coffee to every friend I have and have one or two left over.

I feel very virtuous today--I've made a good start on my personal war against stuff. Look out clutter. I'm on a roll!!

2 comments:

The Pastor of a Small Rural Church said...

Tis better for you to do it today than for your children to have to do it tommorow - A wise saying by a Pastor from Keepville.

Shandra said...

Loved the coffee mug paragraph! :-) I've learned a very effective way to cut down on clutter...move every couple of years! lol