Saturday, October 16, 2010

20w 6d hoarding

Why do people hoard?

Why do I despise clutter in one area of my life (knick knacks etc.), but collect with wild abandon in another?

Fletcher and I spent almost the entire day on our own. Even if I hadn't spent a large portion of the day trying to keep him smiling, I wouldn't have been able to finish the project I started.

One corner of my bedroom was home to a mountain of papers. Every receipt I've generated since my first credit card. Every bank statement since opening my very first account. Every bill ever received. Every insurance statement and hospital form. The wedding paperwork. Home-buying paperwork. Manuals for every electronic device ever purchased. Every oil change I ever had. There's even an overflowing file of "keepsakes" -- every card ever received, every wedding invitation and program, every shower invite, movie ticket and date memento.

It's a mess.

I lost a half hour trying to find the shredder I'd never before used. I filled an extra large Kohl's shopping bag with the shreds of half the receipts I've collected. Half. That was after stepping inside the bag to make room.

Poor Fletch, it turns out, is terrified of the shredder, so it was just as well that I barely got started. Andy had a similar experience with his electric shaver.

They say things have to get worse before they get better. Let's hope Andy will be understanding when he comes home to find the living room lost behind stacks of papers... the evidence of a lifetime of stashing.

Each unnecessarily saved paper tells the story of the beginning of my independence through adulthood.

And it's all a bunch of crap, to which I wish I could just set fire and be done.

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