My sister and I are finally becoming serious about dealing with our clutter. Today in the neighborhood I was chatting with a neighbor who was decluttering a large barn which was packed to the hayloft with stuff. She told me the secret was to put “Like with Like” as she was making a pile of fishing poles. It made me think about the disaster that exists in my basement. I think about all the jars of screws. piles of motors and pruning saws. If I start moving them into piles of “like” I might find that I really don’t need 5 of everything.
Open any drawer
The other day I was looking for a jewelers screwdriver. As I posted this photo I see that one was in this drawer. If I had placed “Like with like” all the screwdrivers would be together. Now some are in the cellar, some in a filing cabinet, some in the garage and this one is in the drawer. Am I the only one that has this problem?
Useless Stuff
There are places that are magnets for clutter. One place is the space under the sink. How many bars of ivory soap does anyone need?
For Sale
Today I found a brand new HP 85A Laserjet toner cartridge. These sell for about $87 retail. I don’t know why I have this since it does not fit in my printer. It occurred to me that someone might actually pay $40 for it. What other valuable items might I sell? Anyone interested in 10 inch reels of magnetic recording tape?
Like with like will not work with the serious clutter I have in my attic and in my garage. There are probably over a thousand items – all different – no like with like – my way of handling this stinking mess is to run away to Maine and pretend it does not exist
I’ve noticed that the house in Maine is slowly acquiring stuff. There is no running away. As Pogo noted years ago “We have met the enemy and it is us”.