Attempting (once again) to declutter

Last week I got home from a week long trip back to my apartment which hadn't changed other than a little dustier. But for whatever reason, it was just driving me insane.

MS was there as I kept grunting and "ugh"ing and sighing as I do when I'm frustrated. He asked what was wrong and I said, "I just need to clean and declutter. It's driving me crazy." He said to take my time and get it done. This was Saturday AM at 10 when we already had a list of things to do. "Aw, honey, thanks, but that's more of a project than a few minutes."

He smiled and looked at my counter and then at the NLPs* around the floor and said, "Yeah, you need to clean that up. It's starting to drive me crazy too." And he's pretty easy going...so wow.

Well MS had to work today and I had the day off, so the last couple nights I set up boxes and today I started to clean. I have a lot of crap. A lot of little crap...little things that when I find them I smile and think of why I have whatever item it is, but then I wonder why the hell I still have it. I have papers everywhere because I get stupid mail and I insist on recycling or shredding, but it piles up when I'm not around. I have magazine subscriptions which are great but I tend to keep them because "there was the really good article" which I've never read and I wouldn't be able to remember where it was located if I had.

So my boxes are starting to get filled: file (medical, insurance, etc), work stuff needing to keep (pay stubs, important docs, etc), magazines (soon to be recycled), recycling (a box of its own), and receipts (which hopefully can just all be shredded but we'll see as I go through them).

It's a little overwhelming how much crap I have, but it'll be nice to get it put away. I also put my scrapbooking projects in a box. I really do want to do my running book, but I think I need to get a bigger book first and I want to get that organized before I start to glue. And I may just have to hire K to do it since she's actually talented enough with that type of project (or I'll just have to wait until winter). :)

Overall, decluttering will help. After my apartment today and tomorrow, I'll be heading to work on Saturday to do the same there. Hopefully by the end of Saturday I'll be feeling less stressed and more organized again.