QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is it good that I kept all this stuff?

Further to yesterday's post, I've been blasting through the bedroom/storage room (or should I say, "dumping ground"). The process has culminated in stuff being strewn throughout the house in an attempt to sort it all out. When I was wee, Mom and Dad used to say I'd make a bigger mess "cleaning up" than the mess I'd started with.

Organization has been my nemesis. I've always felt it takes so much time to "get organized", I tend to shortcut. It's a double-edged sword of sorts because I waste more time, energy and frustration looking for stuff I've laid out just any-old-where. I admire, nay am jealous of those who can seemingly go through life highly organized.

At 41, and after having cleaned out my parent's house in 2005, I've slowly (like... 6-years-slowly) come around to believing that less is more. Mom and Dad kept everything. It was a function of the times in which they'd grown up - through the 1930s. Here I've recently lived through a fairly deep recession, and yet the only thing I truly feel like collecting now is money.

Money doesn't clutter your space and make your house all messy.

Although...it would be interesting to see what it would look like.

My digging and sorting endeavours have yielded a long-lost 5-pack of Bic lighters that I'd bought ages ago since I find matches so messy. I picked up the habit (of carrying lighters, not smoking!) from my friend Dave B. who would take them camping. It seemed so convenient, I caught the habit. Sadly, along with my habit of tossing stuff here and there, I'd lost the whole 5-pack! (behind the dresser, on the floor)

The creme-de-la-creme of my finds this morning was an unopened (up until about 30 minutes ago) bottle of Irish Creme. I'd bought it to take to Christmas Morning breakfast at my sister's, thought it got lost in the van, and found it today in a bag of goodies I'd swept up from the van and simply tossed into the store room.

Are you getting the picture of my nasty little habit?

My friend Norm told me years ago,

"If you have less stuff, it takes less energy and effort to keep it organized." (1998)

See how I jumped right on it and got organized right away?

A/C commented on the last post,

"An Apple IIC. Really?"

Yup, I've been hoarding a realack of a computer, in a box, complete with software and all the cool games - not on display and hooked up ready to enjoy... simply packed away and stuffed into a spare room.

So, QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is it good that I kept all this stuff?

Who knows.

I've got most of the floor cleared away so I'm going to move my sorting table from the living room into that bedroom and finish up my taxes this weekend.

Perhaps another Irish Cream first, though.