Monday, January 08, 2007

Stuff, Stuff Everywhere, and Not a Drop of Space

...now that we've gotten rid of the rodents, we have to deal with the vermin....

The problem with living with a pack rat is that after a while all the stuff that is everywhere starts to weigh rather heavily on your soul. Owning too many things, especially when the things are mostly junk, creates an imbalance in your psyche, I really believe it. I've tried surreptitiously leaving out articles on voluntary simplicity and the like, but they have no effect, they just get lost in the quagmire.

Or, if he actually sees them and reads them, he saves them. Great. More stuff.

But I'm really trying to see the good in everything these days, so in the spirit of my new positive attitude, here are some swell things about living with a pack rat:

1. I don't know if you guys are old/young enough to have watched that Harlem Globetrotters cartoon that played in the '70s, but there was this one character whose superpower was the ability to magically produce things: Whenever someone needed something, he would rummage through his wicked 'fro and triumphantly pull it out. (What genius thought of that??!!) Well, Mr. IQ is kinda like that; if you need something, he's got it somewhere. Unfortunately, it's not all tidily contained within a jaunty black power hairdo. But take what you can get, right?

2. When we do pause to tidy and organize an area, you always find something neat. Or something to amuse you. Or at least something that, even if it angers you at the time, eventually makes a great story. Not that I can think of such a story right now.

3. Betcha none of YOU have a button announcing that you're "A Quarter Pounder Person" in YOUR collection of treasured goodies.

We are currently cleaning out our office, which has been a no-tread, door-always-closed area since 2002. Task #1: Box up all the books. I know you won't believe me, but I'll tell you anyway, he has filled 42, forty-two, FORTY-TWO liquor boxes and it hasn't even made a dent in all the crap that he's got crammed in there. I would take a snapshot and show you, but I don't know how. (Anyone have some easy directions on how post pictures? Blogger Help is all Greek to me.)

Signing off from organizational hell zone,

I am, as always,

Whipped.

P.S: The new light fixture looks amazing!! Well worth the four days of misery. A month from now, I hope I'll be able to say the same thing about the office.


1 comment:

Jill said...

I don't have the "Quarter Pounder" button, but I do have a Garfield button from the 80's that saying "Take me to Your Leader or I'll Atomize Your Face." I'm not even sure why I thought that was funny once.

I did a book purge about 6 years ago. There just wasn't any more room. For each book, I asked myself two questions: "Will you ever read this again?" and "Would you ever want to give this to someone else to read?" If both answers were no, it got donated. I still backslide occasionally, but it works for the most part.