Confessions of a Procrastinating Clutter Bug

For Christmas, I bought my husband, Rick, a valet for his dresser to house his keys, cell phone, loose change, etc. Actually, I bought two. After my friend, Cara, told me they had some inexpensive ones at TJ Maxx (one of my favorite haunts), I headed over there and picked up a lone cherry one in a sea of black valets.

Once I got home, I realized black would actually look better. But instead of exchanging it like a normal person, I just picked up a new one because Rick was with me and I didn’t want him to get wise.

Today rolls around and it’s pretty much my last chance to return it because of the 30-day policy. I actually took a lunch and headed to the TJ’s near my office. After waiting in line, I found out I had the receipt for the black one, so I couldn’t return it. Story of my life.

Where is this going, you ask? Well, I had to find the other receipt which meant digging through the drawers of the dresser in our spare bedroom. They are packed with papers. So during the course of my search, I found a few items that I had neglected and thought were good examples of how I take the house by storm. They are:

• A softball newsletter back from my Atlanta days. There’s a picture in it I’ve been meaning to scan so I can email it to one of my former teammates who asked about it probably 3 years ago.

• Paperwork from the OB-GYN I got at my first visit in October that I was supposed to fill out within a week. Oops.

• Cards and envelopes from Christmas 2005 that I’ve been meaning to use to update my address book as well as to send replies*.

• A copy of the 2005 Christmas card we sent – still haven’t created, no less mailed out, the 2006 version*. But I did buy over 100 stamps back in September to send them out with, so I’ve got that going for me.

• An extremely cool invitation to a Red Egg & Ginger Luncheon for my friend’s newborn (at the time) that was to take place on September 10th. I was to RSVP by August 25th. *sigh* To make matters worse, the baby gift is still unwrapped, in our bedroom.

• Lottery tickets from August ’06 whose numbers I have still yet to check. I could’ve been a millionaire by now!

• Scratch off lottery tickets we received as wedding gifts back in June of 2004. We actually won a few dollars, and I still haven’t turned them back in for new ones.*

• Two coupons for free ice cream cones from UDF that I had for a full year and a half before they expired on 12/31/06. In 18 months, I couldn’t manage to get a free cone. Hard to believe.

• And the list goes on.

If you have a similar story, I’d love to hear it. I think it would make me feel a little better to know I’m in good company. And if you're interested, I did find the receipt in all this and successfully returned the extra valet.

* Items I don’t technically think are solely my responsibility, so I’m attempting to relinquish at least some of the guilt.