Quit Your Bragging

I know I’ve gone on and on about how, even though I’m a complete clutter bug and pack rat, I can always find what I’m looking for. And generally, that ain’t no lie. It’s truly amazing, really, that I oftentimes know exactly which pile or drawer or corner to go to to find what I’m looking for.

Until recently.

I had been searching high and low for two items: a $25 gift certificate to a local mall that I ‘won’ at a company bowling party two jobs ago and a check for an overdue invoice that had taken me over a year to pry out of the hands of those who owed it to me in the first place. So imagine my embarrassment at the thought of having to ask for a recut of the check.

Luckily, I’m enough of a procrastinator that I didn’t mind waiting the several months it took me to uncover these items so no awkward phone calls had to be made.

Rick and I were going down to Atlanta for a week to spend some time with my oldest sister and her family as well as to attend the wedding of a dear friend. I went to our storage closet where we keep our luggage and pulled out my suitcase, wondering why it was so freaking heavy.

After lugging it on to the bed and unzipping it, EUREKA! I found it was packed with all kinds of goodies I had thrown in there in an attempt to quickly clean up our room in time for…our annual ornament exchange party last December – including the gift certificate and check.

Good grief, I had to laugh at that one. And as my mother likes to say, it’s always the last place you look. (Insert your own Yogi Berra joke here.)

Just goes to prove a lousy short-term memory, creative cleaning practices and procrastination are not the best mix for staying on top of your stuff.