Current Paper or Not-

A few days ago a friend called for lunch and I loved the interruption in my daily life.  Picking her up, I walked into the kitchen and out of the corner of my eye I saw it.  Piles of paper…bills in plastic grocery bags, shoe boxes filled with newspaper clippings and coupons. It was paper everywhere the eye could see…and I wasn’t supposed to see it.

But then I couldn’t un-see-it.  And what I did next was to give her a suggestion to hem the tide of paper.

It was not current paper, it was old paper from bills that were paid (if you don’t need it for your job, house or life—toss it.  Bank statements from years ago can be shredded, but what if you don’t want to do this, THEN you box it up. Put a list of items inside (Phone bills and newspapers from 1998)  and put the current date  on the outside and put it away. One day you will be able to toss it out—but for now, get it out of your life and live without clutter.

Every day you need to get rid of your clutter, it will one day explode if you don’t take care of the little pieces of clutter. In my mother’s house there was one piece of clutter I needed to donate.   The piano.   It was my mother’s dream for me to play at  my parents’ parties.   I would sit down and play but the theme from The Partridge Family in the key of C wasn’t what they wanted.   The photos of family on the piano told the story of cousins, friends aunts, uncles and grandparents in frames always in fashion, and later on, it held Mass cards as my mother aged.

In my mother’s house you could always tell who had called her, as the framed photo of the person would be moved to the center of the piano. When, I had no luck selling the piano, I called my most musical friend and asked if she wanted it, she could have it. She would also have to move it. Two weeks later, there was an empty spot and lots of photos.   But, I kept the bench. I never mentioned the bench when discussing the piano gift to my friend.  Was that wrong? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Email me at lesliefjacobs@yahoo.com.