Stuff and Stuffed Bags of Stuff

I don't know why I keep some stuff. Such as broken pens, worn out old sponge curlers, baggie of cotton balls, baskets with nothing but dust in them, empty lotion bottles, broken necklaces, boxes of ---pregnant clothes? (My daughter Karla sent them to me, I don't know why!) Then there is the phone-call-delayed stuff. Stuff on the way to the trash, but the phone rang, I set it down, and forgot it. Bottle caps, clothing department hangars, used cotton tips, crumpled up tissue papter, old shopping reciepts, dusty half-eaten poptart, clothing tags.

Pack Rat Syndrome, it must be contagious because I think I caught it from my husband. In our early years together he would stop me and ask, "Are you going to throw THAT away?"; sometimes he would even retrieve things I threw away! So, I may have moved too close to his heart --- and I caught it and I began saving stuff too.

I am treating this like one would do a chronic disease. I must learn to control it - one day at a time. My daily affirmation is: "We can't keep everything....you know."

I could create give-away mystery boxes! Mystery boxes? Such as a box full of old... preggo clothes? [Hmmm? Looking at boxes from Karla]

I stuffed a purse I had been embarrassed to be seen with in public but still kept, two, maybe three year old Halloween candies, several pairs of mismatched socks with holes in the toes, then pausing, I realized that some things are harder to throw out. Soon, I smiled then dropped a small piece of artwork my grandchild had drawn and said "This is you, Grammaloo" into the now overflowing bathroom trash.

I can't keep everything, you know.

Now, if only my husband...

...because Christmas is coming and with it we usually ---- get more "stuff"!