In With the New, Out with the ....Nothing Much

I received a new color printer for Christmas but it won't fit in or on my desk. I found the perfect sized rolling stand for it over the internet but there's no space for the stand in my office. Thus begins the great eradication of stuff. It's a bit like lining up the dominos and starting the cascade.

The printer needs to go where the 3-drawer storage bin sits. That bin is full of "who knows what" and piled up with "got to do something with that" stuff. The "got to do something with that" stuff needs a home IN the 3-drawer bin so I need to clean out the closet in the guest bedroom, full of ten years of arts and crafts materials, to make room for the "who knows what" stuff. The 3-drawer bin itself needs a space so I'll have to clean out the closet in the office which is full of an extra bedroom's worth of linen, summer clothes, and more "who knows what".

So I started with the arts and crafts materials that I've collected since Teen was a toddler. For ten years we had to buy a new box of pencils, pens, crayons and markers to start the school year off right. Somehow the old box would never do. Classic markers are not the same as Tropical markers etc. etc. Then there's the stamps, glue sticks, stickers, scissors, construction paper. You can't throw this stuff out! It's all still good. It all works. Into the basement it goes.

Next I attacked the office closet. Shoved the clothes to the side. I need those. I'm going to lose weight. And I might have more than two guests one day and need those extra bedroom accessories. I stuffed the pillows, blankets, etc. into a couple of those special bags that you suck the air out with a vacuum cleaner . The picture on the package shows a nice pancake-like package full of all your important stuff. Mine resembled a diorama of the Rockies. Close enough. Into the basement it goes.

Then I attacked the 3-drawer bin inside and outside. More arts and crafts. Important brochures on everything you can do in Minneapolis (in case of guests). But most troublesome: photos and more photos. Photos of previous generations and earlier times, past vacations, and lots of Teen when she was still Baby and Toddler. How can you toss these? Even knowing that I've already captured the best of many of these collections in photo albums doesn't help me part with them. After all, I can't really KNOW until I've cross-checked. So I had to move everything out except the photos. Shove those into the bin, then into the closet it goes. That's a for later job.

So now I'm ready for the printer stand. There's nothing like getting something new to bring home the reality that I do not easily part with the old.

Worse still, now I have to clean the basement.