My daughter is going off to her next adventures, having completed high school. She is doing a great job of clearing out her room, file cabinet and organizing books and giving away clothes. (We haven’t touched her stuffed animal collection – already boxed – or other tchatches.) Still, she’s a great role model.
I have the detritus of 35 years of professional life, at least 4 careers (7 employers and a bunch of consulting), 20 residences since high school (not counting those summer school and transitional spots for 6 weeks). Since 1973, i’ve enjoyed photography as a pastime, and have boxes of photos which aren’t sorted, edited or in albums (see related “thing” on organizing photos).
I am a pack rat: much of this is paper. Some is quite organized – in file cabinets and I can usually put my fingers on that part quickly when needed (even if not needed for years). Some is just in boxes, and there’s a lot of it. I’m also not too bad at the “piles” or “archeological” method of finding things. Did I mention the dozen or more boxes in a friend’s basement?
Enough. I’m resolving to clean up my room, and the “funny room” – gararge turned into laundry plus study. Then I’ll get those boxes out of Barbara’s basement and cull the 25% that’s probably still of value. The challenge is that I need to touch everything because there is that 25%.
