You're a better woman than I am. I hoard. Paper clutter all over my house, on every flat surface, not just in drawers or shoeboxes in the closet. Why keep it? You say, wisely, what do I need with clippings of restaurant reviews or recipes, menus he stole from restaurants he enjoyed, photography magazines, letters from his girlfriends before me, and photographs of people nobody recognizes or remembers, but donate to a local college for art majors to incorporate into collages and historical artwork... I don't know... there has to be a home for so many things. I have landfill phobia. The stuff we throw away: it pains me to contemplate, to see. And so I hoard. And someday it'll all get torched because I didn't sift and sort it all myself. Ok, I just now snapped what's to my right, on the countertop: Father's Day card, birthday card, bills, newspaper clippings, a calendar, and mail that isn't really "junk" but I fail to file it somewhere:
You are stronger and braver than most! And you could teach me so much about what to dispose of, what to keep, and how to keep track of what I keep... oh, I have books on how to do that. I just keep putting them out of my mind.
Keeping the letters, envelopes, cards, newspaper clippings
is not really keeping the people associated with them closer to us, is it?
I need to internalize that and start clearing the clutter (er, deadwood! Door #3 from Tuesday Tarot!).
I started with throwing away, or putting it aside for donation, one thing a day. It could be as small as a single pencil, but one thing a day made its way into the garbage or the donation pile.
I donated everything that could still be used, and I am still doing that. The Veterans of America pick up guys know me by name now, and I know theirs.
I hope to sell anything of value, but that is a whole other ball game that I am reticent to step up to the plate for.
Just one thing a day. Try it. Of course it's usually much more than one thing that gets tossed, somedays whole drawers would be culled. My special technique. I'll write a book about that, to go with all the other books that have been written about that, only my book will have one sentence in it.
While we're sharing (I hate that word "share" so you didn't hear it here) I talk a good game, but here is a shot of my "desk" today:
on which we can see cat toys, a sweater I started more than twenty years ago, and a yo-yo, among other things
I'm often terrible at match-making, not just in the romance department, but in trying to unite "kindred spirits" - I'll read one author, think "You've got to read this other author; we all have so many passions in common!" - only to find the other authors totally ignoring each other, not into each other, and not into me either. ;) But... today I thought you'd enjoy these Steemians I just discovered (I've resteemed some of their stuff this morning):
@agmoore • 54 minutes ago
@abigail-dantes has another humdinger of a post out today. I think you'd enjoy it: https://steemit.com/psychology/@abigail-dantes/metacognition-neuroplasticity-and-pr-s-incredible-brain
Why thank you!
I think agmoore participates in mizu no oto but I have yet to read anything else of his.
abigail-dantes does indeed float my boat. Holy cow! major find. Thanks.
Later!!! I'm in no mood for another story!!! Enough of this for today!!!!!
xo
You're welcome... and, sorry you seem to have gotten an overload from me today.
Tomorrow is another day!
Not from you! Never from you!
phew
Heaven forbid I should burden anyone with reminders of life's burdens--there just aren't enough cat videos (or bleating goats on you tube!) to counteract the tragedies and vicissitudes of life. But I leave you with goats, all the same:
Now, @goat-girlz, feel free to add your own to the collection!
Start at 48 seconds to get my favorite... that goat speaks for me!!!
Priceless!!!
That photo totally makes my day!!!
And the one-thing-each-day motto. It's similar to advice to writers. Write just a few words, and see how it goes. Chances are you'll keep writing after the Five Minute Freewrite timer went off, because the prompt unlocked something.
Throw one thing away, and you might throw out a whole drawer full of things with it.
It's always mathematical, isn't it?
Oh, and me too: I hate that word "share" so you didn't hear it here. LOL!