Confessions of a One-Track Mind

There's been this vast pile of stuff occupying the area between my living room and dining area for...a few years now. And all this time, I've looked at it with despair. it's been between waist- and shoulder-high, and just looking at it has made me queasy.

I've been spelunking through it, and I'm disgusted with myself. Half of it is---drumroll, please---empty freaking boxes. Or boxes with a couple things in the bottom---a hat, some junk mail, loose grocery bags. There are maybe four boxes that I actually need to sort through, certainly nothing panic-worthy.

I also need to haul the leftover odds and ends off to a thrift store. At the moment, it's stacked up in front of the TV...and a respectable stack it is. With that out of the way, I'll be that much closer to having a civilized living room.

In the morning, I'll start ferrying some of the legion of boxes down to the curb for Friday's pick-up. Upwards of a dozen, from here and there. Several bags of trash. Progress. The middle is fine now; the perimeter still needs work.
.

Once upon a time, when I used to be Lutheran, I was assiduous about giving things up for Lent, usually carbohydrate in nature. In addition to candy, I often gave up bread, potatoes, crackers and the like. (One year, Lent was good for -30 pounds, not that it lasted.)

This year, I'm ready to resume giving things up, but now, that's what I'm going to be doing: Giving things up.

I am renouncing clutter for Lent. I hereby vow to get rid of at least one box or bag of stuff every single day, even if it's just a grocery sackful or a shoebox-worth.

This should prove quite salutary, especially since I've made enough of a start that it's not going to be purely crap that should've gone out anyway. This is when stuff like clothing, books and tapes go bye-bye. This is when I divest myself of surplus dishes and tchotchkes. And yes, a certain amount of crap.

It's ambitious of me, and I don't tend to be ambitious. This, however, is an endeavor whose time has come. I have a vision for my life and THIS ISN'T IT. And the only way out of this mess I'm living in is through decluttering.

Y'all may get awfully tired of hearing me babble about every box and drawer I sort through. Thirty-seven years of clutter isn't going to just disappear. (Alas!) Along the way, there's likely to be some nostalgia and you'll-never-believe-what-I-found.

Cheerleading is appreciated; if that's not your thing, well, I'm sure there will be other drama going on. There usually is.

( Work rant, avert your eyes! )

To my f'list: Even with the boot fiasco, it wasn't *that* bad a day...until the end. I came in and my station was available, my very own space with my name on the partition, and I ran over to Goodwill on my lunch break for a couple things to personalize it. In addition to the Moldy Grape Monstrosity, I got a box that's exactly the right size to stash my steno pad and headset in---no more schlepping tote bags, yay!---and a tin to stash medicinal chocolate in. (It's shaped like a Milk Bone, how cute is that?!) Tomorrow, I'll take in a calendar and maybe a picture or two, and I'll be all set!

For Lent**, I've given up eating after I get off work. Liquids are okay, but I had to put a stop to my habit of coming home and chowing down right before bedtime. For days off, that translates to no solid food between midnight and 6 AM, which ought to be do-able. That, and I've got to watch my sodium intake---my ankles are freaking huge.

I'm sorry if anyone feels abandoned; I haven't actually read through my f'list in about a week, except for a few recs that y'all have told me about. I'm replying to e-mails and comments, and that's about it. By all means, if there's stuff going on that I should know about, feel free to chime in, I'm just putting one foot in front of the other right now.
__________

** I know, a Unitarian Universalist observing Lent is bizarre. Chalk it up to my formative years in parochial school. I didn't retain much from those nine years of indoctrination, but somehow, Lent stuck. (I have the feeling that Lent had a practical pre-Christian basis, namely a way to stretch dwindling supplies during the final weeks of winter until the livestock started reproducing and game started coming out of hibernation.)