(NOT ACTUALLY MY BOOKCASE, THOUGH IT ALMOST COULD BE)

     You can’t pick up a magazine or newspaper, stroll through a bookstore or watch an afternoon TV show without seeing something about clutter.

     “Experts Share Their Secrets on De-Cluttering”

     “33 Ways to Organize Your Closet”

     “Get Rid of Your Junk – and Get Back Your Life!”

     And why not? We baby boomers are the perfect target for such help. As the most affluent generation this country has seen, we’ve bought the most stuff. And as a perhaps the most self-obsessed, we’ve kept it.

     Maybe that’s too much psycho-babble. Maybe we’re just flat-out pack rats. Or just too lazy to throw stuff away.

     Doesn’t matter. Point is, some of us have too much junk. Too much stuff.

     And by “some of us,” I mean me.

     Vicki and I are in the process of cleaning out at least some of the junk in our house. Some of it’s hers.

     And by “some of it,” I mean 5 percent.

     Most of us it’s mine. I’ve been going through hundreds and hundreds of books, getting rid of enough to stock a library. I’ve been getting rid of old clothes I haven’t worn in years – no, clothes I probably haven’t SEEN in years.  We’ve made numerous drop-offs at Goodwill.

     Doing so, by the way, is just what all the experts say: a liberating feeling.

     You do begin to feel that maybe, one day, your life will be your own again.

     The hardest thing has been the old papers. Stacks and stacks of them. Notes, bank records, the children’s fourth grade reports. Whatever. Piles and piles and piles of junk.

     I should just shred them all and be done with it.

     Instead, I find myself going through each one, as if it one will prove to be an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.

     So far, none has.

     I take it back: The hardest things to get rid of came yesterday: a pair of basketball shoes and a pair of softball cleats.  Haven’t worn either of them in five years.

     Maybe 10.

     In essence, I guess,  I was acknowledging my ball-playing days are gone.

     But I figure, what the heck.

     If the Yankees sign me to play centerfield, I’ll buy another pair.

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Michael Kozubek   |2011-02-05 14:02:07 I also enjoy the memories that going through old treasures evoke. I have rid myself of much paper and quite a few old photos, however, by scanning and saving only the digital files but, as you so aptly state, ridding oneself of clutter and acknowledging the passing of an era is still difficult.

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