Clearing the debris

I cleaned my room today. And I mean cleaned. I had the day off work today (hooray!) and so after sleeping in and then laying around for a while, I decided to tackle the hurricane that was formerly my room.

At first I didn't know where to start. Clothes covered every surface. Stacks of junk mail, bills and who knows what else were leaning; any other addition would have sent them tipping over. So I cleaned here and there until the mess dried up like water down the drain, leaving just a few puddles to tidy up.

The problem I have when I clean is that I can't just clean, I have to go through everything, read every letter, flip through all the photos, making what could be a short process even longer. I realized today that I have received a lot of greeting cards over the last couple years. Birthdays, good-byes, graduation, miss yous, hellos, you name it, I have a card for it. (Thanks everybody!)

Another problem I face is not knowing what I can throw away. Do I really need to save checks from a bank account I no longer have? What about bank statements, old telephone bills or pay stubs? Chances are I don't need them, but I if I threw them away, I'd need them.

When the massive project was over and I could step back and survey my work, I was glad that I had accomplished something with my free day.

And then it hit me...

A week is probably all it will take for it to return to the mess that it always seems to be.