Storage Wars and Hoarding

We signed a new lease this week with the plan to move next year when our lease is up as this apartment is now too expensive. With that in mind, a few weeks ago we started our clean out/toss out/give away campaign, the idea being if we cleaned a bit every day or week by next year, we'd be ready for the move.

We have a guest room that's sort of a general storage catch-all which is fine because we rarely have guests. Everyone lives too far away for an overnight visit. Then my son informed us he's coming for a week...beginning Mother's Day.

That particular room went from 'someday' to 'this week'. However, I'm determined I'm NOT going to just stuff things in the closet. So I've been delving through boxes and drawers and baskets and bags, sorting with a vengeance. The last time I did this--about three years ago--I discovered I had thirty-two pairs of scissors. My prize this time? Seventeen bottles of nail polish, all approximately the same color. Since I actually polish my nails about twice a year...well, let's just say I have plenty for my needs until I die, and I must like that color a LOT.

Today I'm going to clean out the cabinet in the corner. Years ago we purchased it as a computer cabinet, but since then it's been used for all sorts of other purposes. This time I hope to use it as a clothing chest. I have noooo idea what I'll do with the stuff in it now. I may get wild and crazy and toss it out since I haven't even looked in the cabinet in over four years. I might even find something interesting in there, but I suspect there are piles of audio/music cassettes and CDs. If I want to save the data/music on them, that will mean spending hours transferring them to flash drives or the extra hard drive we have. Why can't technology just slow down? Why does it have to change all the time?

Then there are the eleven rolls of Christmas paper I found in the corner. We don't buy Christmas presents because everyone lives too far away. We send gift cards. Out, out, out!

We have enough reusable/canvas shopping bags to shop for the next two or three months without returning them to the car for the next go-round. Maybe we should take a stab at actually using them...

The house hunk would like to discuss my shoe collection. I would prefer we don't go there. He gave me a plastic storage box so I can hide them under the bed. You may wonder why clothes and shoes aren't in the closet. Well, when you live in an apartment, there's no such thing as 'storage'--except for the closets.

When my son goes home, I'll work on my office. Maybe. Or I may find it in my best interest to go back to writing. Really. I haven't written anything except my blog for the last two weeks.

Now if I can just get past my anxiety that there will be a paperclip shortage some day. Never mind that we live in a mostly paperless culture now. Who knows? I may need the three boxes of paperclips I found. So I'll keep them...just in case. And my stash of sticky notes. And the stack of blank notebooks. Pens. Every color...

anny