Saturday, November 22, 2008

please de-clutter

I spent the better part of the day sifting through garbage. And not my garbage. Somehow Joe scored himself a job cleaning out a house that is no longer inhabited. The previous occupant is now in a nursing home, and the house has been empty for over five years. I have never seen anything quite so sad. I have never walked from room to room on piles of trash. I have never opened bag after bag of brand new clothes and shoes with the original receipt still intact. I have never seen so many books unopened, notebooks untouched, nor shoes unworn. As I helped haul out bag after bag of garbage, filling dumpster after dumpster, I couldn't help but think how lucky I am that my whole life will never be thrown in the trash. We are strangers to this woman, rummaging through, shoveling out her garbage, her life. She has to pay someone to clean out what she's accumulated her entire life because she either has nobody, or the somebody she has doesn't want deal with this kind of mess. So sad...

Not a very exciting post. I guess I needed a way to process this crazy day. Joe tossed a book to me this morning that he found in the pile, "How to De-clutter Your Life". Guess she never got around to reading that one...

1 comment:

Amy said...

You've got me thinking...I better get cleaning soon or you mayve have to come to my house and do the same thing some day!

So what did you do with all the stuff? Anything worth keeping? :o)