Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Replacing ignore

Sometimes it pays to ignore things.

My computer has been working like a charm since I decided to "ignore" the virus warning that supposedly is, in itself, a virus.  While I do not recommend this course of action, it has worked for me.  Well, at least for the time being.

However, ignoring the piles of stuff in my house, year after year, has not been the best idea.

These are photos and memorabilia I have collected...and collected...and collected.

I always planned to sort them all in chronological order, mount them in photo books, and then label everything. I read somewhere once that it's one of the nicest things you can do for your kids.

Well, here they are.

My closets and drawers are filled to overflowing with more stuff.  I won't be snapping any more photos of them, for fear you will call The Hoarders and I'll see myself on a TV episode.  You'll be going tsk, tsk, and my children will be saying, "How did we let this happen?"

Since returning from Arizona, I've been determined to streamline and simplify my life, another phrase borrowed from something I read somewhere, and a fancy way of saying I don't know where to put anything anymore.

And if we can do without it all for six months of the year, living in a mobile home in Arizona, why do we need it all here?

I did go through all my books already this week, filling a shopping bag for Half-Price books. I might get a buck-two-eighty (ala Garrison Keillor) for all of them. But it was very hard to part with them.  I had planned to re-read them someday (yeah, right).

My clothes closet was crammed with blazers and suit jackets, none of which I wear in my new retirement life. They're no longer even in style.  Oh, and did I mention several of them don't fit anymore? 

And since I can't possibly live long enough to complete all the stitching projects I have fabric for, or the skeins of yarn that I thought looked good at one time, they're getting thinned out as well.

Another thing I read once from some organize-your-life expert was that rather than thinking of getting rid of things, substitute the word recycle. It works for me. I'm into recycling. Perhaps someone else somewhere might appreciate my junk stuff.

Isn't springtime just the best time to undertake such a mission? Spring fills me with new energy, after a long winter of dormancy.

These days, ignore is gone from my vocabulary. Nike's slogan, Just do it, has taken its place.