Tag: Junk

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Do you ever feel surrounded by too many things? Things that duplicate other things? Are the things you have taking over your life?  George Carlin used to joke about stuff, and how we all had stuff and house stuff grew, and we ended up having to rent storage Spaces to save all of our stuff. I find myself more and more in this type of a dilemma.

When I was in the military, I moved a lot, when I retired, I stayed in the same place, going on 27 years now. I know that when I moved every 3 or 4 years, I did not have this problem. When you get ready to move you get rid of the things you don’t need to take with you, and you take the things you do. I imagine we have all had this type of experience at one time or another.

Lately, I’m starting to wonder who’s running the house the things or me. I know the old saying is ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ The problem now is all the other junk in the house is banding together and looking for a place for me. I am not sure what I need to do about this. However, I have a plan.

Every time I see something sitting around that annoys me, I ask a couple of questions. Why do I have this? Where did it come from? Where and how do I use this?  (Where I use it gives me an idea of where it should be.) Do I need to have more than one of these? Do I need more than one?

As I work at this, one item at a time, the great people at Goodwill get some excellent benefits of my trimming down. I used to watch a cooking show by Alton Brown, and he always talked about using multi-use tools in the kitchen. In other words, a tool that would allow you to do more than one particular task with it. I like that idea. Using that idea,  I remove unneeded junk from the house.

If you want to feel better, you need to release some endorphins from the brain. One way of releasing those endorphins is actually completing tasks that you know need to be done. Removing excess things from the house also gives you a better view of where you live and helps you to keep those good feelings. 

Thanks for being with me today, I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Hooray for Monday

The snow is still on the mountain. There is an old Native American expression that states as long as the snow is on the peak the winds will continue to blow. I believe those old Native Americans are pretty smart people.

I had an amazing weekend.  As a mean old Air Force master sergeant, I used to move often. Well, about every three years or so. And during the move, the house would be cleaned, items not needed anymore would be disposed of, files would be Cleared and straightened up, all in preparation for the big day.

After we bought our house in 1994, we have not moved since. We enjoy the house. We dust, we make the beds, clean the kitchen and cut the yard. And, it seems as though in the last 23+ years, we have not prepared for a move. I started to recognize this one day about a year ago when I looked around and said, “Holy crap. Where did all this stuff come from?”

Since then, I have been slowly and steadily trying to battle the overflow of all those wonderful things that sneak into our lives and then turn into junk. Some days as the battle rages the junk wins.  Some days, like this last weekend, I get to put a dent in it. At least I now have my files 75% organized and thinned of unneeded items.

I know that this is a small victory in the overall junk wars. Yet, I will take any victory I can get.

Have a great start to a good week. Hope to talk with you again tomorrow.

Have a great day

 

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