Stuff

I have way too much stuff.

I've always been a bit of a pack rat, but lately I swear my bedroom is looking more and more like it did during my teen years than any other time in the ensuing decades. Today I made a dent, but it's a tiny one. Tinier than the dents I put in my dad's car, while driving my mom's car shortly after I got my license.

The problem with getting rid of the stuff is that the easiest way to do it would be to just throw everything away without going through it. But, I know if I do that I'll be throwing away stuff I just don't want to get rid of.

But going through it takes time, effort and a place to actually put the stuff once I discover I want to keep it. I also struggle with the whole donating versus recycling versus garbage issue. Again, just throwing it all away is the easiest, but I know that's pretty irresponsible.

UGH.

I'm not willing to photograph the mess because, well, no. But here's a diagram of the current status:

This makes it look much better than it is.
Which is why diagrams >  photos. 

And that actually represents progress. We're not going to talk about all of the stuff that until today had made itself quite at home in much of that "actual clean floor space." We're also not going to talk about those few days a couple of weeks ago where I basically just had a pathway from the door to the bed.

I have friends coming to visit at the end of December and the goal is to have a neat, clean, organized room by the time I'm playing hostess. (Technically I'm playing hostess next weekend when my best friend comes to visit, but, we were roommates for three years, two of them in a 15 x 15' dorm room so she doesn't really count.)

The countdown to me actually having a neat, organized, grown-up person's room has begun.

Wish me luck. I'll need it.