ugh, spring cleaning

[asimplechord]

We have gone through every cabinet in the kitchen and bar/game room.

I'm tossing/giving away/recycling a bunch of random things that must have been gifts but have never been used. I feel bad giving them away, but they are really just clutter. I found no less than six packages of decorative paper napkins with watermelon motifs. Four sets of watermelon-shaped tea-lights. (I have never in my life decorated for a party or dinner with floating candles.) There are easily two dozen pint-glasses and a half-dozen pilsner glasses to be wrapped up and boxed for Goodwill or Houston Achievement, whoever wants them. A two-bottle wine holder thingy. A pile of mismatched flatware, tupperware bowls without their matching lids, four random pacifiers (visiting babies left them?), a Texas state flag, a half-dozen mason jars, an extra toaster, an extra coffee pot (in addition to the one we use, and the pot + grinder that A and I have each taken to work).

The entire Inspector Coffin series in paperback. Colin Dexter's mysteries in paperback. Most of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. PILES of random paperbacks that I am never going to read again. A box of magazines to recycle. A box of clothes and shoes and old purses. (I am not allowed to buy band tshirts or totes, even after this purge.)

I just. How did all this crap ACCUMULATE?

Comments

[why-me-why-not.livejournal.com]

Isn't it amazing how much stuff you end up with without realizing it?

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Mostly I'm just surprised b/c some of this I have absolutely no memory of having seen before, but I MUST HAVE. Someone put it up in those cabinets, right?

[koshweasley.livejournal.com]

Sounds like quite the purging.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is the accumulation of 7 years' residence in a single locale. I've never actually stayed in one place for so long before, so usually I pared things down when I packed to move. I think we can see my pack-rat tendencies when there is no external motivating force.

[koshweasley.livejournal.com]

Quite understandable. I used to be that way, but then many years back when ever I was in a very bad mood - I started throwing things out. Didn't care what it was or if I'd need it again, in the trash it went.

Kind of therapeutic, but a bummer later when you're back to normal and think...did I really throw that out? I could use it now.