In order to avoid an episode of Hoarder's featuring me, I am de-cluttering my office. I am having a hard time though, disposing of the piles of stuff that threaten to take over every inch of available space in an already small environment.
Let's start with magazines. I love magazines, and I have loads of them. What I don't seem to do is actually read them cover to cover. I flip through, get engaged for a short bit, do some dog-earring and then put it down. But ... it's not DONE done, so I can't exactly throw it out. Right? I have about 50 Vanity Fair magazines that fall into that category. The problem with that particular tome is that each story is like a short novel. So while I will read one or two things, there are still at least half a dozen other articles I would like to read as well. So it goes in the "get to later" pile. Which, by the way, nearly reaches the ceiling.
The truth of the matter is, there is no later. There is only the now that I read it, and the later will never come. Ever. And I have a stack of magazines to prove that! Today I have thrown away like 10. Which is the proverbial drop in the bucket. I could also start reading them right now instead of writing about them. But that isn't what I feel like doing. In fact, I am so Kindle-addicted I can't really think of when I read ANYthing else, including newspapers, junk mail and magazines, other than something to amuse me while using the lady's room. (I am saying that politely.) And that is hardly enough time to finish a short article, forget Vanity Fair fare.
Then there are the recipes. I print them out, I rip them out of magazines, I create massive piles of them. But I rarely actually take the next step and try them out. I just went through a stack of ripped out magazine pages that I can't for the life of me figure out why I ripped out in the first place. I was seriously bugged that there was no obvious reason, and I kept going over and over them. Weird.
So, we've covered the magazines, and there are of course the books. The stack of fun reading I have yet to read (and might never actually get to due to that Kindle problem!) and then the stack of gardening books and the self-help books and the yoga books and ... well, what they really are are books that I will probably never read since I haven't seemed to in all the years they have been sitting there, right out in the open so I won't forget them!
Moving on we have the bags. I love bags. Pocketbooks, backpacks, larger bags, computer bags, camera bags ... oh my gawd the bags. Now, I can do what I just did and neaten up the pile/stack of bags, but I know that next time I go to grab my hiking backpack, which is sort of in the middle of the pack (haha), everything will come tumbling down and it will spill out of its little corner. But where else shall I keep the bags? This is my central bag location!
And shoes. When I come in from a walk, I have a tendency to come into my office and take my shoes off sitting on my chair. There really is no closer seat, and I also like to put them on in same seat, so it makes sense to just keep them in my office, right? But then it gets complicated, because I will be wearing a pair of shoes before I put on my walking shoes, and well, what if I am hiking that day instead of walking? That is a different pair of shoes. And well, there is the issue of lower and higher hiking boots. They tend to line up. I just put away my cowboy boots, two pairs of clogs and my Uggs, but the sneakers, well I know I am just going to use them here tomorrow, so why bother to pretend they go elsewhere? (The hiking boots are back in the hall closet, but let's be serious, for how long?) The only thing that prevents me from storing my shoes in my office is if they are muddy -- then I take them off on the porch. But after the last episode of putting on my hiking boots and having to tear away a lot of cobwebs, I am thinking that's not such a great spot! (Okay, I hadn't been hiking in a while, but cobwebs are tough to get off!)
I know! I think I have a solution. What I need to do is move my desk and computer to another location, and then re-label this space as my walk-in closet! The fact of the matter is, that would be perfect!
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