I AM A PACK RAT

while cleaning up, i realized that over the years i have managed to collect so many things. i am a collector of all kinds of stuff.

often i resolve to clean out my room to get rid of unnecessary clutter but i find myself putting most of them back, either for sentimental reasons or thinking i might have use for them in the future.

i'm a pack rat. i hoard. i can't seem to throw anything away. i couldn't part from gifts and mementoes from special occassions and trips i don't even remember taking.

this may seem like an innocent enough habit, but then i realized i got two, sometimes three of the same item.

yeah, that bad :p

it is for this reason that i have decided to devote at least an hour each day starting today for fearless cleaning. meaning, i will not only dust, but i will sift, throw or give away stuff i have not seen, much less used, in the last 10 years of my life. okay, all right, the last five years of my life.

i am getting inspiration from writer astrid fitzgerald from whom i learned one or two things about clutter.

sigh.

cleaning is tiring. but it is a wonderful exercise and full of surprises.

while i was cleaning up, i found ghosts - mental debris i never knew i had. like an old jacket my ex bf gave me one day when i was cold, one day when i never thought we could end so badly. i used to wrap it around me and try to bring up the scent of his cologne. i sniffed for the last time and tried to bring up the memory of his face. it's no longer there.

the jacket went not to goodwill or the trash, it went to the bonfire.

i found out that burning is a wonderful way to wipe out the past. i mean, if you can't burn the person, burn his favorite jacket. :p:p

na nana na!