Piles Piles Everywhere Piles

It starts out so innocently. “Oh, I’ll just put this here until I can [----]”. Well [----] never happens or never happens as quickly as we might optimistically think. Instead we end up with a pile:

-to be paid
-to be mailed
-to be filed
-to be read later and then moved to another pile
-to be recycled
-to be given to a friend for one of her piles
-to be put away
-to be cleaned
-to be thrown away
-to be given away
-to be folded
-to be matched
-to be included in a project that one hasn’t started yet or one can’t find at this particular moment

I have all these piles plus more:

-stamps that need to be cut out and attached to their wooden blocks
-fancy paper to be used for a really cool project I’m going to work on soon, I promise
-books to be read
-books to be donated to the library sale
-clothes to be donated to Goodwill
-clothes that need to be repaired god knows how
-collage items and tools
-notecards and old holiday/b’day cards
-mail order catalogues
-various items that need to be taken to the basement
-puzzles to put together
-games to play
-cat toys
-tissue paper in the middle of the dining room for said cats to frolic in
-projects in progress or to be started
-things that need to get to other people
-curtains that are currently homeless as there is no room in the linen cabinets

Now, I don’t want to give the impression that I have to wend my way thru precarious piles of crap like those packrats depicted on TV. Each pile has its place and is out of the general run. And I do a pretty good job of keeping up with the piles upstairs. The basement is a different matter. My major winter project is to get some shelving down there and get organized. Of course I have been saying this for 3 years, but this year feels different. I have already purchased some Sterolite bins and made a start… so the shelving could just happen this year. I can feel it.