I was sitting at my desk today going through a deep drawer of assorted crap that at some time was deemed necessary to keep. It’s kinda like my junk drawer in the kitchen, but this one has papers too. I found a coupon for dishwasher soap from 10/2007, an old voter registration card good for the 2004 election, and many, many names and phone numbers written on tiny scraps of paper and the back of envelopes. There must’ve had at least 30 business cards in there too.
Of course by now, I have no idea who any of these people were or why we would have kept their info to begin with. Doug gets frustrated with me because I always use a tiny piece of paper when I write something down. (Perhaps I am clairvoyant and am foreseeing the huge paper shortage of 2010, when everyone has to write lists on their arm.) What really peeves me though is finding 2 rebate slips that I forgot to send back- one for $50, one for $25. (Of course they’re expired by now.)
I found some batteries. Are they still good? Who knows? Semi-dried out markers, staplers that are permanently jammed and floppy discs with no labels all happily cohabitating; thirty-six cent stamps, pencils with no points or erasers. I found a Wee Sing tape. (Brett and Amanda are both in their 20′s now.) It’s a cornucopia of clutter. I even found some liquid paper. That hasn’t been used that since God knows when-the last century?. The question is why is all that junk still here? I know. It’s the giant clutterbug I’m married to. He thinks everything is fixable. I think if it’s broken and you can replace it at the dollar store pitch it.
I even found an order for some lab tests for Doug. The appointment was for May. He never gave me the form. No one ever called us the day before to confirm, so he missed the appointment. (We’ve both been to the Dr. since and the Dr. didn’t mention anything to him so perhaps the tests weren’t that important anyway.) Amanda taught me a couple of years ago how to use the calendar on gmail. It’s great. I use mine every day for my appointments and other important stuff.
I’ve realized over the years that now I must keep track of all of Doug’s appointments as well as my own and all our dog’s. The orders for the labwork didn’t get on my Google calendar. That’s why he missed the appointment. He’s no dolt. He’s got an MBA. However, sometimes, he can’t seem to walk and chew gum at the same time unless it has to do with sports, business or tools. He has no idea of what prescriptions I take, or he does, for that matter. I finally laminated a card with all his meds listed and stuck it in his billfold in case of emergency.
As I sift through all this stuff I realize that this drawer is like a snapshot of my life. Keep the good stuff and get rid of all the junk.
I have many pack-rat places like that in several places in my house, of course you know that, having helped me sort the crap how many time?
My kitchen has one whole side of nothing but junk drawers. We have the telephone junk drawer, Jim’s junk drawer, Duffy’s junk drawer…. and somehow the two drawers after that also ended up junk drawers. One with photographs, the other with Very Important Papers and things like the dog’s medicines.
I refuse to even talk about all the junk in my closets. I’m not a pack-rat, so I can’t even claim that. Jim’s a pack-rat, I’m a “Throw it out for crissakes!” kind of person. I’m just too lazy to ever clean out something that has the ability to be kept out of sight.
I really hate that about me, since I used to be such a dedicated neat-nick long, long ago.
Neat-nickedness is highly overrated.I thought you knew that.