Clean the Clutter!

I walk a fine line between cozy and clutter. I don’t notice it as much in the summer because all my windows and doors are open--my house feel bigger. When it gets cold, I get claustrophobic. I start noticing how much crap I have in my house. It’s the papers that make me crazy. I “need” to save them, but I don’t have anywhere to put them. Where should I keep the student handbook? Or the FYI booklet for Brownie Scouts? What about the recipe I ripped out of the news paper or the crochet pattern I printed off line? I keep it in neat little piles and I move those piles all around the house until I get fed up and I throw them all away.

A couple years ago I labeled a three-ring binder “Suppa Time Favorites” and filled it with tabs for “appetizers”, “soup”, “beef”, “chicken”, “pork”, “sides”, “desserts”, and “holiday themes”. This way, every time I find a recipe on line or in a magazine, I can print or copy it and file in my binder! It’s bloody brilliant—so brilliant, that I developed a similar binder for crochet patterns.

You know that line about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? Guess how many recipes I have in my binder? Three. Only three. And the crochet binder—well, it’s only a week old, but I only have one pattern in it. Now guess how many recipes and crochet patterns I have floating around my house? Then again--don't. We don't want to know.

This weekend, I pledge to Clean the Clutter. I am going to find it a home, or throw it out, so help me God help me.