Today I brought home a cool secondhand pair of tattered sneakers and a pair of speakers to add to my stereo system. Stuff. Coming in. This is how it happens. Did I need the speakers? I already have two, but heck, four sounds much, much better. After hooking them up I looked around at the spirals of wires now running across the floor where there had been neat hardwood mouldings.
Did I need the sneakers? No. I already have about 6 pairs of shoes. Now compared with Imelda Marcos, I'm doing just peachy, but I've never had that many pairs of shoes. I can't wear them all at once and granted, I need shoes for different occasions but I've never had three pairs of sneakers before. I let out a slow sigh.
To make myself feel better, I took stock of my place. First the bedroom. Two laundry hampers. Two hampers means I wait too long to do laundry. One goes. Armoire? Surely I must be able to weed out a few shirts from the collection that I don't wear. Four, in fact. Only have a couple of jackets...good there. I have, taking up a huge amount of space, two antique music boxes that would open up a lot of real estate if I got rid of them and their respective tables. This is where I run into problems. I have this appreciation for antique automata and I can't seem to get past telling myself "Not now...we'll revisit this another time." This time is no exception. Maybe I'll sell one.
Not much in the bathroom to get rid of unless I want to drip dry every time I get out of the shower and stop using deodorant. Onward to the living room. There's no question this room gets the most use and tends to accumulate things while I'm sleeping. "Hmm...where'd that extra remote come from? Wasn't there last night." The underpants gnomes must be moonlighting in the electronics industry.
My desk is always a disaster. I look at it and wonder how I've managed to keep a business afloat for 13 years without losing some critical piece of documentation under the mountain of scraps and notes. Cleaning my desk and disposing of unused files and other paper detritis always makes me feel better. I'll typically reward myself by going out for a meal, which isn't anything special since I'm a single guy living alone...I always go out for a meal.
Next...to the kitchen. I take stock of knives and utensils. I have china for four and utensils for eight and just enough kitchen gadgetry to keep me cooking without having to improvise too much. Flipping omelets using a fork because you don't have a spatula isn't my idea of a worthwhile minimalist trade-off. Plus it doesn't help with plate presentation. "Sorry folks, you have to eat your steak with a spoon because I only have one knife and its currently in the dishwasher." No. Not doing that. I did however, take note of the fact that the drawer that holds my storage containers hath overfloweth. I dove in. Several bottoms with no lids. Three lids with no bottoms. How the heck does that happen? Damn gnomes. Don't need six Chinese food containers. All the orphans and the extra containers go into the recycle.
Well....I feel a little better. Where shall I eat?
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| I should be glad it isn't this bad. I can at least see the bottom of mine. |
