As I was clearing out my penultimate remaining junk room (such a danger in a big house -- just stashing stuff in piles and closing the door to deal with "later"), I was listening to NPR and there was a feature on people who are called "the new simplifiers" -- people choosing to get rid of excess, opting to limit their usage and material footprint on the world -- dollar stretcher type people.
I was doing my own part to simplify -- I made a huge box of old paperwork to be shredded (old contracts, students' records, bank records -- things that couldn't just be recycled), tested all the old ink pens (most didn't work and I threw them out, but made a big pile of the ones that did), and put all the office supplies in a box and brought it down to my office space (I will never have to buy another paper clip as long as I live, made a HUGE box of things to bring to Savers (before the end of the year, so I get my charity tax credit), and listed a few things on freecycle (already got emails from people for two of the things -- including empty boxes and packing peanuts).
At some point in a more prosperous future, this room will be a bathroom. I think having all that junk in there blocked me from thinking about it becoming that, and having it really empty should help the transformation occur (if only removing all the junk would make the $3,000 or so it will cost to turn it into a bathroom magically appear!)
I also have an ever-increasing pile of things that I think have some sort of value and that I hope to sell on ebay. The pile is sort of daunting, though, and I think I might embrace the holiday spirit and just box them up and bring them to Savers or list them on Freecycle. I'm really ready to have all this excess material "stuff" out of my environment.
Simplify! Simplify!
