Thursday, February 11, 2010

"My Cup Runneth Over"

Some people see a glass as half full; others see it as half empty.  Not me!  "My cup runneth over!"  Basically, there is no more room for anything more.  I do not have an empty closet, shelf, cabinet, bookcase, pantry, or storage space anywhere!  My house is full. 

In truth, its more than full.  I still have things in boxes that are unpacked because there is no place to put the things that are inside!  And we've lived in this house for nine years!  Does that mean it was full the day we moved in???  How depressing!

This has happened before in our house.  After all, we've been together for almost 44 years.  You accumulate a LOT of stuff in 44 years!  LOTS of stuff.  We have owned four different houses in that time; each one bigger (or at least equal in size) than the one before.  Usually when we first moved in and got settled, we had space left over!  It was a great feeling to look around and have a lovely, spacious, uncluttered home, with room for expansion.

I seem to remember (vaguely) that there is some law of Physics that is something about gas expanding to fill the available space.  I never knew that law extended to belongings too!  That open spacious feeling quickly disappears as more and more things become part of our "must haves." 

Yes, I admit it.  We are "Accumulators"!  Both of us!  The Big Guy keeps everything he ever owned.  Clothes, gadgets, pens, watches, electronics, notebooks, exercise equipment, former hobby  things, and papers....lots and lots of papers....all related to the different jobs he's had for the last 40 years.  I'm not kidding.  There is one whole room in my house;  99.9% of its contents are his things.  And 99.8% of that, is stuff he hasn't used or ever will use ever again.  Now I don't mean a few things discreetly hidden in a cabinet or closet.  Nope, I mean wall-to-wall, practically floor to ceiling!  No joke.  This is his "office".  (In our house "office" really means junk room!)  If he should have the poor taste to die before me and leave me with this mess, I shall hang his body in effigy in front of my house with a big sign that says, "He never threw anything away!!"

It really pains me to say this, but I am very nearly as bad as he.  The difference being that I keep things that I love, or I use, or has an important memory attached to it AND I put it all away!  Ergo, my full house!  I am a sentimental fool and so is the Big Guy.  This only makes things worse.  He is a charter member of the "But I might need it someday" club.  I am a charter member of the "Awwww, I remember this" club.  How do you throw away a memory?

Nevertheless, there comes a time when reality comes a-knockin' and you are simply forced to accept as fact that there is no room for even one more thing!   When you attempt to put things away and discover all of the "away" space is gone, there's no avoiding the truth any longer.  You either must purge and discard (gasp....hyperventilating), or move!  We can't afford to move, besides who wants to pack up all that stuff anyway!

Maybe I should look into one of those storage places.  Nope, same problem.  Another expenditure on our already tight budget and that dreaded packing thing. 

So there is no choice but to face up to it and make some room...somehow....somewhere....get rid of something.  Oh help!

Now all I have to do is convince the Big Guy that his cup runneth over too!  Wish me luck with that!

I must go lie down, maybe the feeling will go away.....



2 comments:

  1. I do things in tens. When I don't want to clean, I make myself pick up 10-things. Or when cleaning out my closet, I commit to give away at least ten items. This usually gets the ball rolling and I keep going. Maybe try getting rid of ten things today. You may end up feeling ten times lighter.

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  2. I love Chandra's "10" thing! I may have to try that. When Ed and I got married we merged our stuff. As of today, we have 7 sheds of varying sizes and shapes to hold much of this stuff. Ed is also a saver - has crap like shelves, cable ties, all sorts of things that he's been holding on to for years. And every once in awhile he actually uses one of them with a very smug "see, it's a good thing that I saved this!!" look on his face. Which always elicits an eye roll from me.

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