Pack Rat

I am on a cleaning kick. My lease is up at the end of September and I have decided to clean now like I am moving. This involves making the tough decisions on what to throw away and what to keep.

As I move through my apartment, I am surprised at what I find. Sitting on the floor near my working PC is another PC that just needs to be plugged in to function. I open my closet in my bedroom and there are two more PC cases with most, if not all, the requirements to be working PCs. In the coat closet inside the front door are two boxes with enough parts in them to make each of the other PCs function (if they donÂ’t currently) and likely at least one more PC out of scrap parts. I am fairly certain I have at least one skeletal PC case down in my garage into which these scrap parts could go.

I have, so far, given away four large trash bags of old clothes that I no longer wear. I have sitting beside me right now two smaller bags of clothes to take in to the nice girl whose mother cleans and mends the clothes, then takes them to missions and donates them in Mexico to the poor.

I have shredded three large trash bags full of old bills and other documents that are 7 or more years old. Why am I keeping this? Does anyone care that I can produce every electric bill to the apartment I lived at on Kendall in San Bernardino in 1993? I doubt it. So, away with it! And, not to scare you, but this is just the stuff in my current files. I have yet to clean out my bedroom closet enough to get to the four-drawer metal filing cabinet in there that has even older stuff in it. I would not be surprised if that cabinet has every pay stub I received working at RoleplayerÂ’s Comics and Games when I was in High School (in case that makes no impression, I graduated in 1989). So, even more shredding to go.

I still have over 100 VHS tapes on shelves. How many of these am I going to keep? Those that I really want I will purchase in DVD and store long-term that way. At least when I do that, I know I can take them into work and leave them on an open table with a “Take Me” sign on them and they will all make it to a nice home where they will be viewed and enjoyed. Should I do the same with those I will not replace?

Inside my front door I have two bookcases and a three-shelf rolling storage unit. Today I was able to find other locations for, or throw away, everything on the three-shelf storage unit. So as not to just fill it up again, I have thrown away the unit. That has freed up a spot inside my door approximately three feet long by two feet wide by three to four feet tall.

In the back of my mind is the shelf in the garage. Beyond the PC case, what other “treasures” remain to be found? Of course, I only have the very end of the garage as storage, so there is not really a lot there. I do know I still have my old, broken lounge chair in the garage. Only reason is because I couldn't lift it to get it into the trash bins at the complex. However, unlike so many of my neighbors, I actually use my garage for parking, so most of it is empty for my vehicle. Whew!

By the time October rolls around, I should know whether I truly need a bigger apartment or if I can just make enough room here that I am once more comfortable. Then, if I do decide I need to move, IÂ’m one big step closer to doing it. If I decide to stay put, IÂ’m a ahead of the game and have more room and less crap littering my life.