Decluttering

Long, long ago, my cousin Shirley used to tell me about the house they had owned in New Jersey. We were both living in Evanston, IL at the time. Her description of trying to clean that house stays with me today. There was alway so much dirt, she said. You could suck it out from between the floorboards with a vacuum cleaner, or scrub it out with a brush and water, but still, there was always more dirt, as if the house was actually producing the dirt and releasing it through the floorboards. Good basis for a horror movie, I think.

Our house is the same way, but it is not dirt so much as clutter, and it is not the house that has produced this situation, but us, the owners and caretakers of the house, who have allowed it to fill up with stuff. Still, when I clean, declutter, and toss stuff out, the remaining stuff seems to de-compress and take up more space. Last week, I hired someone to haul away a dump truck full of stuff. It made barely a dent.

I am going to persist though. De-clutter sites on the web suggest allotting a mere, but consistent 15 minutes a day to the task. Sounds like a plan.