A Keeper

I am a keeper. No, not like that. Well, maybe? But what I’m talking about here is that I keep things for sentimental reasons and I keep things for just-in-case reasons. I’m the opposite of a minimalist, although I no longer describe myself as like a hoarder after watching that TV series, which was so upsetting I had to stop watching it. Those poor people had mental health issues that put them in these awful situations, and I don’t think that me hanging onto a piece of ribbon that I might use again is anywhere on that spectrum.

Now that I’ve gotten myself depressed, on to a lighthearted tale of cleaning out desk drawers!

Yes, I might need to work on my transitions here, eh? Well. What happened was that I went to get something out of a desk drawer and it wasn’t there. (Which is a problem because if an item is not where it belongs, I have zero idea where else it is. But this item isn’t important here except as the catalyst.) Everything else under the sun was crammed into that drawer, though, and in frustration I started pulling things out, trying to find the item. Which wasn’t there, but enough “why do I have that” and “why would that be here, it belongs there” went through my head that I decided to take everything out and start sorting through it all.

The goal wasn’t to throw a ton away, but to really think about if I wanted to keep it, and if so, where it belonged. Whee! Lots of crazy stuff.

Some stuff was trash, for sure. Some needed to better sorted and organized. One drawer led to another, and to others. I did enough that my back started complaining about it.

Among the keepers were a handful of hockey pucks: “Hey, Mom, do you need any paperweights?” Those are useful keepers. Among the 'non-useful and I don’t care' keepers were these.

Because how could I not?

I remember waiting to go in to one of these games, and a man near us, holding a printout of his tickets, said enviously, "How did you get real tickets?" (The answer was that my friend got them through work, and I guess the corporate season ticket holders get the pretty ones.)

In the not-keeper category was this CD, which notes that the system requirements start with "Windows 3.1 or '95"--imagine putting that in a computer today? It would probably faint.

Also not keepers, my incredibly outdated collection of airline frequent flyer cards.

Pop quiz, how many of these airlines still exist today?

I've been working on this, on and off, all day, and I still have a bunch of stuff strewn around to figure out, but what's been put back in the drawers is 1000% better already, which feels great. 

Even if my back does not.