Purge

This is one of my dresser drawers. It's supposed to be the the jewelry drawer, but trying to find anything is a bit like trying to play "Where's Waldo?" It takes patience and concentration. And digging. Lots of digging. 

I have too much stuff and I don't have a good place or a good way to keep all of the stuff. As life shifts and priorities change, things previously important- like a sketch pad, for example- get put away and move from being out in the living space to hiding, tucked away in a drawer. I could blame baby-proofing, but I know this is only partly true. 

But I've recently come to the conclusion that everything I have should either serve a real, practical function or it should bring joy, or both. Every. Single. Thing. And it shouldn't be a theoretical function, that I might be able to use it, at some point, despite that I haven't used it and have kept it with the same argument for the past five or ten years. 

I also don't want to keep something out of guilt, obligation or sentimentality, because it meant something to someone else, in another time. 

Everything has a story. 

I would like to be more purposeful, more conscious of the stories I surround myself with and keep in my life. 

It's time to purge. Every closet and drawer and box. 

Purge.