2009: Identify and Rid Myself of 43 Items of Überclutter

Item #19 was a prettily-wrapped jar of some god-awful sounding jam recently given to Mr. Wren. Jam made of hot peppers and blackberries, no less. Why oh why would anyone make such a thing? Why oh why would anyone buy such a thing? Why oh why would anyone give such a thing as a gift to an innocently bystanding houseguest?

This scary jam has been in our house, on our kitchen table, for only about a month, but it had future uberclutter written all over it. I decided to forgo the usual waiting period and usher it into the trash, where it obviously belongs!

12. Battery charger that did nothing but make promises
13. Ultra cheap pedometer that stopped working long ago
14. Holiday ribbon roll with just a tiny bit of ribbon that is not enough for gift wrapping
15. Little bit of Coban that really isn’t enough to wrap anything.
16. Box that my old cell phone came in.
17. Some old promotional material that really isn’t going to come in handy.
18. An unidentifiable piece of crap.

Item 11 is a basket filled with straggly plants that was given to me when my father died. It’s been on my nerves for quite a while. I finally decided to just get rid of it. Whew!

One benefit to having Mr. Wren work away from home is that it gives me a chance to really get the house in order. Mr. Wren is not the tidiest of souls. I went through his piles of clutter on the living room end table and the kitchen table very carefully. I didn’t get rid of anything that looked like it might possibly have value, but there were a lot of six-month-old junk mails, empty envelopes, and so on that I did get rid of. Then I organized all the rest. The unclutteredness looks lovely. If I’d been obsessed enough to actually count each item, I would have made it to 43 on this go alone.

I also put all my Proactiv stuff together in a bag to pass on to a friend of mind who is interested in trying it. Turns out I can’t use Proactiv. It makes my face burn like crazy!

I went through our freezer and through out the stuff that has been in there too long to be good…as well as the stuff that has been in there so long because it is never going to come out again! I’d avoided doing this for a long time due to the illogical thinking process that the food is not being wasted if it is being kept in a permanent state of suspension in our freezer, which is really just denial on my part.

6. I finally took some empty wrapping paper rolls that Mr. Wren left in the corner after Christmas out to the trash!

3) a bunch of old papers, paid bills & such, that have accumulated on the kitchen table.

4) a small stack of expired Papa Murphy’s coupons.

5) a crappy old pie tin.

1) The old water filter that Mr. Wren just replaced. Mr. Wren has a habit of just leaving useless things lying around, rather than throwing them out, and I have a habit of not touching them for a long time, waiting to see if there is some reason he has decided to hang onto something that clearly appears to be trash. This time I just threw it away!

2) A SparkPeople bumper sticker that I didn’t ask for & didn’t want, yet I was holding onto it because it was a free gift, & some dislogic in my brains thinks things have value just because they are free gifts.