I don’t know why having order of your possessions is so important.  And of course your mate has a different idea what that means.  We still have several hundred cassettes I don’t want or am not too interested in.  I am happy they are hidden from sight in the garage.  My wife considers them still valuable.  To be fair to her we have gotten rid of some but cassettes are really dinosaurs.  Almost no one wants them any longer.  I have to admit I still use my cassette deck.  Most of the time to play collections of music I put together.  Someone I know has all his music stored somewhere on a hard drive.  And he is not the only one.  LP’s are also dinosaurs.  They stopped making them in 1987 although vinyl is making a comeback.  I still have, maybe, two thousand stored in my living room.  As neatly and unobtrusively as I can.

Our living room has become neater.  There used to be piles of papers and our books on the bookcases were doubled up–no longer so I don’t want to complain too much about this room.  We have made progress in making it neater.  Every couple’s idea of order is different.  Some houses are less cluttered and some even look so clean you can eat off the floor.  Cleanliness and order are two different discussions.  They are not exactly the same thing.  And cleanliness is, also, another issue you have to work out between couples.  As order, usually each partner has a different idea what is acceptable.  Somehow you have to find the middle ground.

I don’t know how to extricate myself from my things.  I feel trapped by them.  I have too many LPs, books in particular.  That is only a short list.

Being married makes it a little harder.  Some of the things are hers or ours.  There are still many books and cassettes in boxes as well.  I just want order and don’t know how to get there.

My house is budging (??bulging??) at its seams.  I tell my wife someone is going to have the mammoth job of going through our stuff when we are gone but that does not make any difference to her.

We had made three trips to Austin to finish the job of going through her Mom’s stuff.  Too much of it is still in boxes in the basement.  It costs us a small fortune to ship that stuff.

I just don’t know how to downsize.  We have a junk room upstairs.  It could be a guest room if it was ever cleared.  All this is driving me crazy.

I just want to throw away, give away stuff.  I want more order in this house.  Pray for me.  I don’t know what else to do.

Every once in awhile I think about our house and what will happen to the things in it when we are both gone. Clearing and sorting through my wife’s Moms’ stuff after she died was a major task.  In fact, we had to make three trips to Texas to accomplish to that job.

I told my wife someone one day will have to do that to us.  You can’t take your things with you when you are gone.  That fact does not make any difference to her.  More things keep coming in our house.

I look around our house and know when the time comes someone will have a major task in front of them.  And a lot of things that are here and we would not get rid of will just be trashed.

I do not want to say my wife is the only one that collects things.  I collect music–CD’s, LP’s and cassettes.  I also collect books and they are practically in every room, some still in boxes so I am part of the problem too.

I thought what might be valuable if both of us are gone and would like to pass on:  my journals, my wife’s writing which is scattered–not much.

Even the value of those am not sure I will have any say over.  From dust you come and dust you will return.  I have to remind myself of that.  And maybe consider what truly has value.

I spend an inordinate amount of time straightening up my house.  It seems I mess it up, then I reach a point I can no longer tolerate my own disorder so I have to do something about it and then this cycle repeats itself.  And over and over.

I remember the few times my family went on vacation without me (I raised a boy and girl) things actually did not move.  They stayed in the same spot.

But I have to live with my own messes.  So does my wife.  I try to logically place items I put away.  Currently we are running out of space for books.  And we still buy more.  And I have run out of space for newly recorded cassettes.

We have empty cassette racks but we have to agree where to place them.  And that has not occurred yet.  It would take me another lifetime to play all the cassettes I have not heard.  Don’t ask me where we got them that is another story.

All this drives me crazy (and my wife).  Sometimes parts of my house actually looks neat and organized.  Until next time.