STUFF!

In preparation for my move to Atlanta, I have begun cleaning out my apartment. I do not mean the dirt-removal kind of cleaning - in that sense, my apartment is already pretty clean - I mean the clutter-removal kind, getting rid of whatever I do not need to take with me.

This is a daunting task for two reasons:
a) I'm something of a pack rat
b) I have not actually made any kind of concentrated effort to "unclutter myself since I left college, and even then I did not do a very good job.

Neither of those reasons should come as much of a surprise to you. After all, you have probably read about the ranch dressing incident, wherein our hero bravely carried an unopened bottle of ranch dressing through three moves over three and a half years, never dreaming of the darkness that lurked within. Well, friends, I have looked into that darkness, and wept for what it revealed. Since that horrible day, I have practice caution when peering into my refridgerator or foraging through my cabinets. My kitchen is a much safer place than it used to be.

But what of my bedroom, my living room, or my coat closet? In those dark dens lurk ancient things and I, who would scour them, have no expiration dates to guide me. Until now I have left these mysterious objects to molder quietly in the darkness or, as the case may be, in piles upon my bedroom floor.

Well this week that changed. I took the first steps in to identify and remove that which I no longer need, which would only weigh me down, wasting both the strength and the space I would need to move them to yet another aparment.

And that first step was to make a list. After all, I like lists. I called it "The Great Clean" and upon this list I wrote the names of every major container of stuff I need to go through: Dresser, Desk, File Cabinet, Space Under The Bed, and so forth. I then identified subcategories which were, in most cases, drawers.

First on the list is my filing cabinet. Second is Bedroom Floor. It would be first, but since most of it is going to end up in the filing cabinet, I figured I'd better start there first.

It is an interesting process, this uncluttering. As I said above, I am something of a pack rat, and what I keep (everything) I keep for a long time (indefinitely - well, until this week at least). I shredded my first bank statement about four days ago. I don't mean "first bank statement to be shredded this week" (although it is that, too), I mean the first bank statement I ever received in my own name. It was nine and a half years old.

I certainly don't need that anymore, or the pay stubs for my college job, or the manual for the iron that I lost two years ago, or the three copies of my first resume. I have been getting my money's worth out of my shredder this week. I have also lightened my moving load quite a bit (assuming I don't convince myself I should bring the shreddings with me...).

That's just the paper, the bottom drawer of the file cabinet. There are two other drawers and they contain stranger things. Things I do not need, like the two empty altoid containers I swore I'd find a use for someday, the water color paints originally purchased for my college drama class (which have made the transition from "paint" to "paperweight" sometime in the two years since I last opened them), or the bottle holder that's supposed to be on my bike (actually I am keeping that - I just, you know, attached it to my bike).

Besudes space and weight, I may also be saving myself some money. I found three half opened packages of batteries. Hopefully I will remember where they are the next time I need batteries and will save myself from creating a fourth half opened package. I also found two half-used rolls of tape, an unopened package of post-it notes, and four pins from my pin collection that I had thought lost or had forgotten entirely. That's a lot I do not have to buy, replace, or in the case of the tape and the batteries, buy again.

I really should do this more often.