Four Boxes

A short while ago, when there was a break between soft sheets of rain, I ran four boxes of "stuff" out to the dumpsters. Three of the boxes of stuff ended up in the recycle bin (most paper) and one in waste bin (mostly plastics that could not be recycled). These were the four boxes that I hung up over on the weekend for no apparent reason.

Again, I am amazed at the level of attachment to "stuff" that I had neither seen nor used in over one year, all do to the perception of potential value. It took T.R.'s pep talk and encouragement, but I was able to do it - simply throw the stuff away. Then, I added another box and a bag of trash into the mix just because I was moving along nicely.

Now, I have one more box sitting out here beside my chair and my plan is to go through the box and see what is all in it and then get rid of it. The box is labeled "personal papers" and mostly contains old notebooks of a variety of sizes. Most of them, I suspect, are training or education related, but I do want to carefully flip through them, since I suspect there will be some hidden gems of creative writing nestled down inside of them - and that creative writing I do not particularly want to lose.

Though, again, since I haven't read the material in the boxes in over a year (or much longer), who knows what the heck is in them. All I know is that at one time I thought they were important enough to keep, but then, I often held onto things for no other reason than I had the space and I always promised myself that I would look at them later. Well, for this box next, that later has arrived.

Being so close to the one year anniversary of the "Great Purge" of 2010, I am confident in my review that the things in the boxes (and in the other boxes that remain in the spare bedroom closet) can go if there isn't a specific reason I am hanging onto them. My plan with the creative writing is that I am going to separate it out and then either transcribe it into the computer (I've done that with a couple of notebooks I've already sorted through) or scan it in (if I think there is some reason I want to hang onto it as a physical representation of an idea). Depending on the creative density there is also the possibility that some of the notebooks will have actual sentimental value attached to the physical notebook. In that case, I will keep them as mementos.

With each item I discard I manage to feel lighter...an effect T.R. had mentioned and that I can certainly attest to. So, wish me luck and I am off into the contents of the box.