I sat thinking about the title to this for awhile this morning.  I played with alliteration while filling the bowl I heat the water in for coffee.  I couldn’t find the right combination of words that felt right in my mouth.  None seemed to fit without too much stress and strain on the syllables.

And then I thought to go all mystical, and artistically vague.  Something to give this chore I am involved in a little style.  But there is no style in loading pieces of furniture on the sidewalk.  It is just a chore.  Something that has to be done.

We acquire so many things over time.  Books, knick knacks, papers, pictures, pieces of furniture.  Most without thought of what we would do with it if we ever had to move from where we are currently living.  It is overwhelming, and rather mind numbing to stand back and actually see it all.  Because as we wander through our day we really don’t see all that we have surrounded ourselves with.  For the most part it is invisible to us.

From my vantage point on the couch (not really a couch, it is a sectional but that is too clunky of a description so couch is going to have to suffice) I have in front of me a bookcase, and two stacks of crates that I have used as bookcases.  On all three are books, of course, but also cigar boxes that I have kept because…hey… you never know when you are going to need a decent cigar box, right?  Pictures.  Gargoyle statues.  The cask I keep my loose change in.  You get the picture.  It is a conglomeration of things that have to be dealt with.  Things.  I am sick to death of things that I have to make decisions about.

I thought, at one time, to hire a company to come in and clean the house out for me.  Money well spent, was the thought.  Until I say how much it would cost to actually have a company come in.  So instead I am relying on The Salvation Army to deal with the items I no longer want.  Continuous trips to the drop boxes to get rid of old clothes, towels, sheets, books, and the like.

And I am still drowning in the the detritus of the past.