When in doubt, throw it out

• Names and phone numbers. I’m finding things that I need to throw out but need to save a name and phone number. My little address book is so full that I can’t get anything new into it. I started trying to clean it out yesterday. I have trouble throwing out old names and phone numbers of people I’ll probably never see again.
• Quotes and notes. I read a lot, and I take a lot of notes. I don’t have any organized system for it, so it’s just a big jumble of wisdom. I guess I feel so stupid most of the time, and I’m afraid that if I throw this stuff away, I’m throwing away this valuable knowledge that I SHOULD HAVE LEARNED BY NOW. There are quotes and notes filling up my little address book too.
• Greeting cards. Still need to deal with them.
• The church stuff has migrated from the office floor down to the dining room floor. I’m having trouble sorting through this stuff.

I get to spend time figuring all this and more out today. I can choose to do it under protest, or I can choose to do it with an attitude of gratitude.

And a gentle reminder to myself: When In Doubt, Throw It Out.

to throw things out, for me.

old greeting cards. One older pile here on my desk, and another more recent pile on the kitchen table. I read through them, and it makes me feel good, feel loved and appreciated, and I want to save them forever. But I cannot save them all. Gotta throw them out. (I have become Stuart Smalley. These cards are my affirmation that “Doggone it, people like me.”)

and is today’s sticking point. I think my inner toddler is in control. (Des originally reported this problem.) I set my goal the other day to start with this pile, and then I obstinately cleaned all around this pile and didn’t even touch it. Now the area behind my chair is relatively clean and orderly, and the area right in front and to the left is messy and depressing.

The pile consists of papers having to do with church. Fortunately, I have stuff due for church today, so I am hopeful that I can start to tackle this pile today as well.

If my inner toddler refuses to cooperate, I will give her a timeout for 10 minutes to be spent sitting on the floor right beside this sticky, messy pile. Maybe she’ll get bored and start to play with it.

I threw out the pressed flowers, which have been all over the floor since I created a wedding present for J&D a couple of weeks ago. Now I can see patches of bare carpet.

The next sticky wicket: all the papers for church. I’m involved in too many committees and activities, and I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all, and the jumbled mess on the floor is proof of that. I can’t throw everything away, but I’m sure I can throw a lot of it away, and file the rest.

• the brochures on Ashville
• the brochures on depression and mental illness

A sticky wicket:
Decided to make one last pressed flower picture before I throw out the pressed flowers. Started it 2 nights ago but did not finish it. (Right now I am fighting the temptation to retrieve the brochures on depression and mental illness from the trash, because I am thinking that my vascillation and delay about the pressed flowers is kind of insane. But I realize that that idea of saving the brochures is even more insane. Note to self: keeping these brochures around will only increase my insanity, not cure it.)

• Pressed Flowers—I’ve got several envelopes of pressed flowers with the contents lying out on the floor right now. I started to make a wedding present for J. & D. with them. The picture is downstairs now on the kitchen table waiting to be glued, but I’m thinking that, rather than clean up the leftover flowers and put them away, I ought to just toss them. They are old and faded. I can always press new ones. I threw out a lot last year but I’m still hanging on to these. (It’s the memories, I think. Memories of a happier time, when I first started this hobby, and really enjoyed it, and spent time collecting flowers and leaves at places where I used to live, and spent lots of time making pictures and cards and giving them as gifts and even selling them.)
• Brochures on depression and other types of mental illness—I think its safe to say that I am depressed, and that a surprisingly large number of my friends have either depression or some other variety of mental illness. I don’t know why I’m hanging on to this information. (I guess I daydream about helping them somehow, and helping myself. I’m going to a counselor today to talk about my depression. Do I really need these pamplets?)
• Brochures on Asheville—I had such a good time last year in Asheville, and I do want to go back. That’s why I saved the pamphlets. But I had my chance to go last weekend, and I didn’t.
  (I can always get current travel information on the internet or at AAA if I need it. There will be another retreat next fall.)
• Church committee paperwork—I’m feeling bad about this. I’m falling down on the job. I’m not keeping up on things. I save too much paper, and then I can’t separate the wheat from the chaff.

1. Put stuff to be sold or given away or recycled in one area. The room next door is good for that purpose. There’s already a treadmill in there that needs getting rid of.
2. Check out freecycle