Too much “necessary” stuff

Captain’s Log, Stardate 05.10.2010

The reason I’ve been AWOL the past week has been (1) work, (2) cleaning the house because (3) my parents are visiting from Hawaii!

I always enjoy when my folks come. I am very similar to both my parents, which amuses Captain Caffeine.

However, it also means cleaning the house. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will remember the last time I posted before and after cleaning photos. Yeah, this time was pretty much the same except this time, a few boxes had to stay in the spare bedroom, too.

We have too much necessary stuff. Many of the boxes are full of things like spare parts or extra dog leashes/toys, or extra bags for volleyball or when we travel. Still more boxes are full of books—most which I’ve bought, and a few full of giveaway books.

Captain Caffeine has several boxes which are actually humidors for his cigars. I have several boxes of yarn for my knitting (and this is after I’ve gone through and culled any yarn I don’t want anymore). I also have a few boxes for winter/summer clothes (I switch them out at each season start).

I looked long and hard at all these boxes to throw away or gave away what I could. My thought process was like this:

Books? No, I cannot throw them away. I might actually finish reading them all in a hundred years.

Yarn? No, I cannot throw them away. Some skeins were expensive, and I might actually knit with them all in a hundred years.

Cigars? Hmm… No, Captain Caffeine might divorce me if I gave them to the garbage men.

Dog toys? Gave away a boxful. Extra leashes—put them in the cars as emergency extras. Yay! Dog box is almost empty. Unfortunately, dog doesn’t really care or share in my jubilation.

Bags—gave away some old handbags, but couldn’t give away the designer ones. Captain Caffeine had bought a few laptop backpacks, so gave away an old one but cannot give away new bags or risk his wrath. Duffel bags for volleyball—again, risking the Captain’s wrath since he seems to go through volleyball bags like underwear.

Cardmaking supplies? No, I cannot give them away, I actually use them once a quarter when I make cards to give away as gifts or mail to people (you can never send too many homemade thank you cards). But even though I have not bought any new supplies in years, somehow they seem to be expanding in their corner of the living room. Like an amoeba. Or the Blob.

Captain Caffeine also has his own corner of the family room for his flashlight collection, which I am forbidden to touch (because I sort of almost kind of broke one of them. An expensive one. Yes, he had that pained, I am sorely tempted to commit homicide right now and I must remember I love you besides which I don’t want to go to jail look on his face.)

So what am I left with? Boxes of books, yarn, cigars, cardmaking supplies, flashlights. And yes, 90% of that is mine.

The sad thing is, Captain Caffeine is worse of a packrat than I am (I don’t keep ten year old receipts in my sock drawer, put it that way). But I have too many hobbies that require storage space. My yarn boxes are only a tenth as heavy as his cigar humidors, but they take up ten times more space.

So do you have storage/space issues? Or am I just hopeless?