Today Is the Day

 

Even though I don't like clutter, I have to admit I'm not very good at throwing things away.  I'm not sure why.  It's probably partly because I'm sentimental by nature and everything reminds me of some dear memory.  I think it's also connected to the old "as soon as I throw it out, someone's going to need it" worry.  And it's partly my kids' fault--they never forgave me for selling their Disney Sing-a-Long videos at one of our running-out-of-money-at-the-end-of-summer yard sales (even though, at the time, they said they were done with them).  The sneaky thing about clutter is if you keep it around long enough, you stop seeing it.  Take, for example, the shoe collection in this picture.  There are hiking boots from two of my kids' eighth grade backpacking expeditions (eighth grade was six years ago for my daughter and eleven years ago for my son, soccer cleats (no one has played soccer in this family for at least ten years), old sneakers (kept around for creek-walking, which hasn't happened in recent memory), a nice pair of lightweight running spikes (injuries ended my son's competitive running days several years ago).  So today is the day.  I'm ready to take my first small step in reducing some of the clutter my kids have left behind.  I should have done it long ago.  But that corner of the porch looks so bare now . . . and my daughter's hiking boots are still in pretty good shape and I think they still fit . . . and could someone else use those nice running spikes?