Pack Rat

When I was growing up, there was a door between our kitchen and dining room that was always open. When I was little, it never occurred to me to wonder why it was always open, it just was. And then one day, when I was a little older I noticed it, and decided to peek behind it to see what was back there. I was shocked when I took a look! Bags and bags of just stuff! Apparently, the door never closed because it was actually there to hold back STUFF!

When I bought a house of my own, I vowed that that will not happen here. NOT in my house! NO WAY! And of course a month into home ownership, there it was...my pile of things I just could not throw away but had no place to put. And even worse, this stuff grows. Slowly but surely, it sneaks up on you!  My primary "collection" areas tend to be our hallway closets. If there's something I just can't bear to part with, I stuff it in one of those closets! I found this out the hard way when I finally broke down and tore both closets entirely apart and reorganized them. I couldn't believe some of the items that I had in there. I mean, I found (stained) bibs in there from when CLB was an infant! Crazy! Apparently, I just needed time to forget that I had them, and then it was easy to throw or give away items that we no longer had a use for. I guess I needed the time to get over my emotional attachment to these things.

Closet number one! Yes, that's cleaned out! Any super neat people out there...don't laugh too hard at what I consider cleaned out!

Here's the accompanying bag of trash I dragged out of there! I have no idea how all this stuff fit in the closet in addition to what I left in there. What's sad is...

...here's closet number two, (also cleaned out)...

and it ALSO had enough stuff in there to fill another (huge) bag of trash!

Here's the kicker, though. I also have issues completely cleaning out the refrigerator! Okay, yes, I have issues with cleaning out the refrigerator because, uggh, who wants to clean the refrigerator. But it goes deeper than that! Crazy me likes the jars that some foods come in (especially pickle jars! I love the jars more than the pickles!) Why on earth I can't throw out jars is beyond me, but there they are, day after day!

Our refrigerator, stuffed to the gills!

Obviously, (since I just said it) I finally figured out that I like the jars themselves, so I am starting to clear some of them out of the fridge to be stored away and used another time. I mean, our fridge can only hold so much, right?!? Heck, our house can only hold so much, so something's gotta give!

Cleaned out and minus something like 10 jars! At least 3 of them pickle jars!!

My new goal is to continue going through EVERYTHING and not to hold on to items simply for emotional reasons. That's a good goal to have right? Whether or not it's one I can reach is another story, though! I mean, those cleaned out, repurposed jars are already starting to collect!

Just some of my jars, all being repurposed. Let's hope they don't take over the entire kitchen, now!