024 Junk

Junk, Stuff, and Clutter

Yes, you read the title. Yes, we have too much of it. We are working on getting rid of it. Well, some of it. Our goal (though not really a New Year’s resolution) is two hours per week of weeding out. Three piles emerge each session. GO, STAY, and the onerous and somewhat dangerous MAYBE.

Part of our dilemma is our lovely historic brick 207-year-old house. It is a treasure--high ceilings, wide board floors, many windows (some with original glass), Winchester mantels, etc., etc., etc.  HOWEVER, there is NOT a closet for coats or brooms or anything in between on the first floor. We’ve added a couple of closets to the kitchen in our 12-year-ago renovation. One of those closets is the “pantry”--i.e. dog food, soups, and paper towels. And, oh, yes, cereal and peanut butter. The other closet has cookbooks, vases, vacuum, mops, brooms, baskets, and picnic stuff for lakeside, (Yes, we are lucky enough to have the lake just across the field.)  This closet is a masterpiece of ingenuity. If one vacuums, one likely gets to rearrange all the stuff!!! 

I found this quotation online but without attribution. So, whoever you are who said this: THANK YOU!! I do believe that our historic home causes some of our problems. And just, FYI, the laundry room is in the basement (unfinished, concrete floor), which means all dirty/cleaned clothes go three levels – with only an outside entrance. (I am thinking servants those many years ago, but that is a topic for another day!)

Do not, however, mess with our junk drawer. We know what’s in it. 

LEAVE IT ALONE. 

I want my duct tape and my Gorilla glue when and where I know where it is!! 

Another impetus towards the cleanup, clear out was started last year. We do have a two-car garage. Neither car could go into the garage because yes, again, too much stuff. This past summer, we did masterful work on organizing the garage. One yard sale, Goodwill, and several truckloads to the dump, both cars now fit snuggly into the garage. 

How did we get so much stuff you may be wondering? Several excuses/reasons: 1) note date of house and lack of closets – the answer, carry stuff to garage; 2) we have both been blessedly cursed by inheritance – much of which is in the garage (that we can serve 109 people on china luncheon plates is a prime example); 3. We have both been married twice. Things we thought we had to save from our starter marriages were also in the garage. After checking in with grown children about a few things (Barbie dolls in their boxes are still in garage attic), everything else – except a very few things we felt we could NOT part with - is gone!! We hope our “treasures” are now someone else’s treasures.

Now that winter is here, we are working on our closets. If it doesn’t fit, out it goes. If I haven’t worn in two years, it’s gone! I kept two pairs of slacks to see if I can still wear (the MAYBE PILE), but the rest to Hospice. They are about to get four 33 gallon bags of clothes this week, plus two 33 gallon bags of NEVER AGAIN go to the dumpster. 

Here is our sage advice for de-cluttering clothes closets. Do it alone. Do NOT sit and watch your spouse. You will be sidetracked. You will talk to one another. Actually work for 45 minutes at a time; it will take 15 minutes to clean up and move your bags to their designated sites. Thus, your hour is wisely spent. 

I may have to put in an extra hour this week. I tripped over a box of old files and I have not picked them up. They are minutes of Wayside, PHW, our LLC’s, and Apple Blossom annual events. What do I do with these? NO, I am not going to scan them! But, please, please, please do NOT let me take them to the garage. 

Frankly, I think we need praise from our children. Think of the time and money we are saving them in their future now that we are “senior citizens.” And yet, I keep thinking of funny man, George Carlin, and his 1981 album and stand-up routine about STUFF. “…A little place for my stuff. That’s all I want, that’s all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff….This is my stuff, that’s your stuff, that’ll be his stuff over there.”

But a lot of our STUFF IS GONE! 

Glenne