One year to declutter, Part I.

For my recent birthday I gifted myself with this effort. One year. Why? For me, the moment came after I'd watched the umpteenth cable TV show devoted to clutter. Rather, their message was to declutter. Had it not been for the myriad of TV shows that implored me to clean up, clean out and have a better life - and who could resist the allure of a better life - the hundreds of things that I've accumulated over the years would still be safe in their special nooks and crannies.

It might have happened when I realized that my dry skin needed some lotion and, when I went to grab a bottle, found that I had a choice of more than a few. There was lotion with aloe and lotion that would tan me; lotion that promised firmer skin, smelled like an ocean breeze, that contained a lovely green tint to minimize redness, and more. How did I get all of this lotion? And how much money did I spend to buy these products that were now accumulating like watered gremlins after dark?

My urge to declutter could have been the result of looking through my birthday card stash and realizing that I'd have to wade through hundreds of greeting cards for all occasions among the postcards gathered from trips around the world. Some of these cards were, gulp, more than 20 years old. Had I really lugged them from my mom's house to several apartments to my house for that long? Did I even know enough people to send these to?

I breathed a heavy sigh and looked around. I was sitting at my desk and it too, had lots of things that included hand lotion (more...) and at least one thousand pencils. Exaggerating that point; it just seemed like there were 1000 pencils. Maybe only 200 and so I decided to count.

I laid all of the contents of my Animaniacs pencil holder onto the table and neatly arrayed the pencils, pens and markers side by side. I laid out regular pencils and ones with color - green, purple and gray. There were thin tipped markers, sharpies and even two with metallic gold and silver inks. Not to miss anything, I took two more pencil holders from the other desk. The first one was a yellow ceramic mug extolling the virtues of lawyers, the other a conservative leather navy blue with gold trim from a fancy desk set. Their contents joined the others already on the table.

I took a photo and pondered my next moves.

Coming next: Part II, Can Pencils Be Repurposed?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------