We've Got Way Too Much Stuff (With A Big Hat Tip to the Late Great George Carlin)

Since we really love our house and at 3900 square feet it should be more than sufficient room for a family of seven people, mrangelmeg and I made the judicious decision last night that it is time to get rid of some of our stuff. Because if we don't the only alternative according to George Carlin anyway is to buy a bigger house to put our stuff in, and we don't want to move.

So, my project for this week is to get rid of some of our stuff.

I did get a head start by going through my closet and deciding to let go of all of those cherished pieces of clothing that I have been hanging onto "just in case" I _________ (fill in the blank with responses like:

a) go back to work and need that polyester pantsuit,

b) lose fifteen pounds and can fit into those pants again,

c) gauzy peasant dresses ever come back in style or

d) forget and try to wear that third pair of black pumps that really pinch my toe but look so cute when I first put them on.

All of those things are bagged up and ready for Son-and-Heir to take to work with him this morning. (I think I mentioned before that he works at Goodwill, but I will add it here just in case you were wondering why he would take a bag of women's clothing to his job. I wouldn't want you to think he was a tranny in training or something.)

Today I will be going through piles of crap from Gradual School (you should see the bookshelves in the office, we have twice as many books as we have shelves in there and the bedroom bookshelves aren't much better) Surely I can let go of some of those books. I can say with perfect certainty that unless I have an aneurysm I will never intentionally open another Philosophy book as long as I live, and if I pick one up it will only be to smash a spider. (That is of course with the exception of the occasional Kierkegaard, so Rufus, you can stop holding your breath.)

And that doesn't even begin to describe the condition of the desks in that room. I haven't bothered trying to get things into the file cabinet for at least a year, so I have been stacking everything on one of the desks. This week I will go through the files and determine what we need to keep and what we can archive and what we can throw away. Then maybe, just maybe someone will actually be able to use that desk in there to do school work instead of being in fear that if they bumped up against it they would cause a clutter-lanche of epic proportions.

The goal is to cut the clutter by 40% with the pitch, donate, organize method, or suffer complete exaustion in the attempt. Wish me luck.

Pax