A Life Full of Clutter

I am not what you would call a pack rat, but I do have too much stuff. For some strange reason, I have trouble saying no when someone offers me something that appears to have value or that I might be able to use... some day.

Lets start by taking a look inside my garage. First of all, I only have half a garage because the other half got closed in and became my home studio/office. The other half has my pop up camper stored in it... but you cannot even get to the camper without unloading the top of it and moving things out from in front of it. Its mostly pieces and parts of past or current "projects" including scrap lumber, broken lawn equipment and other assorted items....most of which I will probably never use again and yet I cannot seem to part with them.

Just outside my garage sits my truck.... I could write an entire book about all the things I have in the cab of the truck alone. Boxes (to be used to pack some of the items which are cluttering my studio at this time...) CDs, a blanket, and a variety of other items too numerous to mention. I just don't get it when I see other people's vehicles parked at church or wherever and there is nothing in the seats... nothing to be seen at all.. where is all their stuff. Mine is in the front passenger seat, on the dash, in the glove box, on the console and in the floor both front and back not to mention the entire back seat and then there's this "tool box" in the bed of the truck..
Its not so much loaded with tools as just an assortment of things I couldn't find a place for elsewhere, but that were too good to throw away.

In the bed of my truck I have things I came back from Dallas with that need to be unloaded...(waiting for cooler weather) Actually I don't know where I will put everything... you see I helped my brother move for a couple of days and I ended up with a roll of carpet leftovers... (it looked like it might go well in my studio/office...) I also came home with a ceiling fan (never been opened)... a kerosene heater... great for cold winters in Chicago when the power goes out ... that's what my brother said.. problem is, when power goes out here, its usually hot and because of a hurricane... hmm...maybe I should have said no thanks to that one.... I also have a microwave, a stovetop... (gas) and an oven... these are appliances that were built into my brother's old kitchen...but were replaced to help modernize the kitchen when he was trying to sell the house. They're in great shape but they won't really go in my kitchen without a major remodeling job... Not likely to happen right now.. not to mention we have only electric in our current kitchen... not gas.

Something tells me I'll soon be listing a few items on Craigslist..

I haven't even mentioned the hundreds of record albums and 45's in my closet and my office... I have turntables still.. (but no needles..) so I could still play them sometime... if I can find a replacement needle or two... There are CDs... Problably thousands by now... many I bought.. .many were given to me by friends or are radio station promo copies.... Most never get played... they just exist. Plus I have at least 3 spindles of homemade cds.. the kind you put something on but never labeled...and now you have no clue what is on them.. You probably have at least a few of those don't you? Please tell me you do.. Oh yes, I have an assortment of audio equipment from studios that no longer exist... phone hybrids that would work if I still had a land line to connect them too.... cart machines and a reel to reel recorder, a bulk tape eraser... dozens of reels of old tapes containing who knows what... and then there's a drawer filled with cassette tapes... mostly old airchecks from my days on the radio at Oldies 94.5 / 107.5 KLDE...There are hundreds of them still around.. and I threw away and gave away several boxes of them.

Finally for now, I have a cabinet in the kitchen and a shelf in the laundry room loaded with dark room equipment.. Yes I used to develop my own film and photos before the world of digital cameras and photoshop came along.. But I can't just toss it in the trash.... can I?

Ok so maybe I am a pack rat... but I am not a hoarder... well not a serious hoarder... but I am the kind of guy who will sit in his driveway on neighborhood garage sale day...trying to get rid of some of this stuff... while eyeing a few items that my neighbors are trying to rid themselves of as well... sometimes we have simply traded our junk... They took mine and I got theirs... sounded like a good idea to me at the time but then I realized I was getting nowhere in my efforts to clean up some of the clutter.

I think I will stop writing now.. because as I look back at what I have already listed here... its giving me a headache... and besides, Its only cluttering up my blogspace...

Thank you for your support.

Kevin