October 30, 2008
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." - A.A. Milne
As in my scary basement closet.
Perhaps, it was the new moon this week that drew me to the large closet in our basement urging me to clean it.
Perhaps, it was that someone asked me to find something there.
My reply to that person, "You wonder if I have it. I wonder where it is. Everybody wonders how I find it."
At least twice a year I try.
Whether it was the drive of the new moon or a need to find something, I began to search the closet we call "the cave".
I braced myself for brave entry into this inner sanctum sanctorum deep within the bowls of this edifice of our home.
I told you it was a scary place.
When we originally built the house, we poured concrete walls and a concrete ceiling under the garage in the basement. The idea was to have a climate-controlled storage area and tornado shelter.
Now, that room is merely a disorganized and disorderly closet full of life memorabilia.
Taking a serious look at this most private and secret room bred the need to organize, discard, and donate. One cannot escape the powerful force calling one to sort, systematize, arrange, and classify when one finally tackles cleaning out the closet.
Mark Twain once said this about keeping things in closets, "Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else; this is not a piece of advice, it is merely a custom."
Now, I see why climate-controlled storage lockers outside of one's home are the rage.
Keep all your saved things somewhere other than in your own closet and home. That way you can hang onto them to your heart's content without looking at the clutter and without venturing into scary basement closets.
Erma Bombeck, famed humorist and columnist of the 60's, had a theory on housework that just has to apply as well to cleaning out closets.
Erma quipped, "My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?"
On second thought, maybe twice a year is too often to visit our scary closet in the basement. I am checking out climate-controlled storage lockers as we speak.
