Various family members (who shall remain unidentified in this post, although I can tell who the culprits are from their shoe sizes) have been leaving shoeboxes and other assorted boxes piled up in a corner of the basement, apparently thinking they might be useful for something one day. Or, more likely, not giving it much thought at all.
 

This odd habit of shoebox-hoarding goes back more than a decade, when we bought Microsoft Encarta every year. My husband put it under the Christmas tree with the other presents for the kids. They didn’t have much interest in opening it, of course, because they already knew what it was. So he started wrapping gifts for the kids in shoeboxes to disguise what was inside. It turned into a game, to see how long they could open presents without picking Encarta.

I got rid of those shoeboxes long ago, after we stopped using them for Christmas presents; but despite my best intentions, more showed up. Because my daughter will soon be moving to an apartment, I’ll leave the boxes there for now, just because I am curious whether she’ll actually use any of them. If I were a gambler, which I am not, I would take heavy odds she never thinks about them while packing, and that stack doesn’t budge in the slightest. After that, they’re going directly in the recycle bin. Shoo, clutter!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!