Thursday, October 22, 2009

from my father, i think

joy walked into my broken-in apartment last week and exclaimed, "this is a sarah apartment now." unsure of what constitutes something being "sarah," i asked her. she responded rather quickly with, "there are just piles of stuff everywhere. and not necessarily in any sort of order. just piles."
i'm not sure what sort of wisdom i can pull out of that statement, and i would be remiss to think that there is an epiphany hidden in that. but i do know that it is completely correct -- i am a woman of piles. Looking around my apartment now, i can count roughly seven or so different piles around the perimeter of my apartment. and here's the problem: i don't want to buy any more STUPID plastic storage containers. (i think this is partly from being scarred from childhood in having to consistently purge and fit things into "one plastic box." i loathed the plastic box.) once something goes in a storage container i will never take it out of there again and will have to buy a replacement for an item that i already own. case in point: handbags.
i have lots of bags - i'm pretty positive that i don't need to buy any more bags for a while, but when i was in greenville i put them in a box in my closet. i couldn't see them, therefore i would get sick of the one i would carry for a couple of months and buy a new one. would i look in the box to see if i had a suitable replacement for the bag i was sick of? nooooo. instead, i would just assume that i didn't already have one that was XYZ -- why? because the bags were hidden from my plain sight.
when things are in piles right in front of my face, i don't need to buy anything else. yes, it might seem claustrophobic to some, and it might seem without rhyme or reason (now why would there be a pile containing a flashlight, a box of checks, a still broken laptop, AND a paula abdul tape? it's the pile of misfit items, of course) -- but this lets me know i have all i need. consider it a practice in frugality.
also, i think it might be genetic: i have only dared go into steve-o's office a few times, and that man has more piles of strategically placed paper than i have ever seen. i think some have been there since 1995.
now that seems logical to me.

2 comments:

alyssa said...

Hmm. Even though I prefer my organized self to my cluttered self, I do see logic in your contained messiness. I, too, have rediscovered perfectly good purses/bags--packed away in a plastic box.

Katherine said...

SHELVES might be the answer. :)