Living Wright: Clutter has been piling up long enough
BY JASON ASHLEY WRIGHT World Scene Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
1/15/13 at 5:13 AM
Go to Jason Ashley Wright's BlogOriginal Print Headline: Clutter has been piling long enough
I plan on yelling "Timber!" in my living room this week. Or just screaming in general.
Decorations and lights are off, so all that remains is a bare, broken-limbed Christmas tree - more like a post-Epiphany evergreen - leaning ever-so-slightly between the entrance to my kitchen and the credenza, where bills have been reproducing like rabbits since early December. They get along well with the dust bunnies underneath.
Last month, the tree was testament of my love for Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year. Now, it's symbolic of a long-overdue process in my life: de-cluttering.
The R word
Seems that was a resolution for 2012, but I totally broke it - hence part of my lack of fondness for the R word.
Somehow, during the holidays, I managed to convince myself that clutter was getting in the way of my accomplishing other things in my life. And the first thing to go was the freakin' tree - formerly Youngun's tree, the structural integrity of which he questioned during his last Christmas on Earth.
Obviously, it's a fake one, so I can't throw it behind my shed in the backyard and let it return gracefully to the earth as God intended. No, this thing is a brittle, shedding mess of flammable limbs and broken metal pieces that, quite frankly, should've gone up in flames last year.
I can't even give it a proper burial in its box, which is missing. It's not in the garage, it's not in the shed, it's just gone, taken by either mischievous specter or idiot thief with an abnormal affinity for flimsy cardboard.
More than likely, I'll dismantle the thing and stuff it in my garbage bin for Wednesday's pickup. Of course, that won't leave room to toss things from De-Clutter Project No. 2: my home office.
A home of my own
This was Youngun's desk before it was mine, and there are dozens of CD-Rs and games and stuff I've never used and don't need to keep. But it's almost been a shrine, of sorts, with little knickknacks of his scattered about the shelves and around the computer.
I'm way too ADD to have anything other than the bare essentials on that desk - computer, keyboard, mouse and mouse pad, coaster for my water and a candle of some nerve-soothing variety. Does Yankee Candle make a Hazelnut Coffee and Xanax scent?
Project No. 3: My bedroom. I spend six to eight hours a day here, so it's pretty sad this is the room I've paid the least attention to since moving in three years ago this May. The old TV in the corner needs to go, the wallpaper needs ripping off and walls painted, and I need to fulfill my threat of moving an armoire into a corner.
Until I do all these things, I'm just living in Youngun's house, not mine. In a way, especially after his death in 2010, it was comforting to see it that way. But he'd be the first to tell me I have to make his home my own. He talked about taking out the carpet and exposing the hardwood floors, as well as painting the living room - both things on my wish list for 2013.
And I'm sure I'd have his blessing regarding trashing the Christmas tree. Who knows, maybe his spirit's behind the missing box. Might as well blame him for the candle wax stain on the carpet, while I'm at it.
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