A Tribute: Round 2

Published February 14, 2011

A Promise Made

Here we are almost two weeks into February—the month I made a promise to myself that I would try to beat the clutter bug. Now, for those of you who might have missed it, I promised in “Tribute To A Junque Collector” that I was going to rid myself of at least two household items for every one I brought in. What the heck was I thinking?

And She’s Off…

I have to admit, setting this goal, actually kept me from going shopping for several days. And once I did get up my nerve and step into the stores I found I was much more aware of the consequence of buying. Somehow, knowing that two of my currently “beloved” items faced the proverbial chopping block made shopping much tougher.

Now Cut This Out!

Keep your paws off my bunny Mom. Throw out your own stuff!

As I think for a moment of chopping blocks I have to digress, for the irony is we currently own not one or two, but five chopping blocks (or boards as it were). Now, I suppose that may sound like a lot to some, but it is amazing to me how many chopping boards one truly needs. There are different sizes for the different tasks—little ones for those quick one time chopping jobs, medium boards for those general tasks, and my great big one for those big ticket items like ham or turkey. Do you see my problem, yet? I’m a collector. I like stuff.

Sucked In

Though I had every intention of being good, and though it was an itsy bitsy bit easier to resist at first, I kept getting drawn into the same old game. Sure I could look at the things on the shelves and say to myself that I’d need to get rid of two of something else and that would help for awhile, but by the time I’d been in just a few stores I felt my resistance crumbling. That’s when I made my big mistake: I went into Pier One. You see where this is going, don’t you? Oh, curse you, Pier One! What a treasure trove of bric-a-brac. How can I resist you when I know you were one of mom’s favorite places and she would find all kinds of wonderful (covetable) things there? So much eye candy! Dishes and trinkets galore!

The Will To Resist

I did my best to resist, but it was a battle. I found I’d go through several phases as I picked up an item:

Phase 1: Oh my gosh, this is so adorable I have to have it!

Phase 2: Oh, I just love this. It’s so cute; I wonder how much it is?

Phase 3: No, no what am I thinking? It’s cute, but I don’t really need it, and it’s way more than I want to pay.

Phase 4: Poop, the dreaded promise! Hubby will be there as I unwrap my new purchase and he’ll have far too much fun rolling his eyes and flashing 2 for 1 with his fingers.

Do You Suppose She’s A Shoplifter?

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the store looking at things, picking them up, putting them down, picking them up, putting them down, circling around, picking them up, and putting them down, again. I think the sales people were wondering what in the world I was doing.

Oh, The Temptation

In the end, temptation was too strong. After an hour in the store and about ten trips around with the same few items, I finally committed to buying something. I was actually quite pleased because everything I bought was on the clearance shelf. No, really, you had to be there—they were screaming deals. I ended up buying four small plates and an absolutely adorable glass fish—the little guy pictured above. Hey, give me a break; it was only five measly items. Oh, no, that’s ten items I need to throw out!

Creative Math

On the way home, I kept trying to convince myself that the four plates should be considered a set, and only count as one item. Yet, by the time I pulled into the drive I knew that would never fly. I would have to cop to five, and that meant I’d have to come up with ten items to say good bye to.

A Corollary?

I was really tempted to say 5 pairs of socks is 10 items.

It really wasn’t as hard as I thought in the end. Once I got into the mode of looking around it was quite easy to find ten items to eliminate. True, I may have to make a corollary to this elimination rule, for though I did come up with my quota, the items I’m offing are in an entirely different class. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t cheat and pull out five old pairs of socks and count two per pair, but I did end up getting rid of some old purses, shoes and other clothing for my new dishes and fish. I’m not sure, yet. Maybe it doesn’t really matter what I get rid of, but I guess there’s still some part of me that thinks it does.

Half Way There Or Am I?

Okay, the toss pile looks this big because it's some of hubby's stuff too. Still I'm off to a good start.

So there you go. With the experiment half over, now, I guess we can say this collector still likes her “junque”, but at least I’m keeping my word to start paring down. Think I’ll make it through the month? I’ll let you know. Stay tuned…