Meg Evans

A few days ago, I put on a long-sleeved shirt and brown leather vest that had been sitting at the bottom of a dresser drawer for several years. Although I seemed to have lost interest in wearing them, I was not sure why. They had been a gift from my husband; and as far as I could tell, nothing was wrong with them.
 

But as soon as I had them on, they felt all wrong immediately. Although I still wear the same size and these clothes were not actually too tight, they seemed constricting in an emotional way. I felt like I was wearing armor, which reminded me of stress from old attitudes about having to tough things out (as described here). So, because they give me no joy, they are now in a bag for the thrift store, along with my blessing that they will help someone going through tough times.

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!

I knew I’d have to get around to this one eventually, whether I wanted to or not—the stuff that lurks in the closet under the basement stairs. Christmas stuff is stacked up on the left, there are sports bags including some road race freebies to the right, and my husband’s old boxing gloves and other sports gear are heaped up in front. I have no idea how a mini vacuum cleaner, which hasn’t been used in years, ended up in there.
 

Rather than nag my husband to clean up his junk, I’ve been working on other areas of the house and leaving that closet for another day. That day will soon arrive when it’s time to take out the Christmas decorations. I plan to take everything out of the closet, give it a good vacuuming (the mini vacuum might turn out to be useful after all!) and tell my husband that if he wants to keep any of the old sports stuff, it needs to get bagged up neatly in the freebie sports bags.

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!

There’s a cabinet in the basement where I never put anything. When I opened the door recently to see whether any random items might have ended up in there, I found several mostly empty bottles of liquor left over from my daughter’s twenty-first birthday, when she and her friends had a tiki bar in the backyard and played Hawaiian party music.
 

She is 23 now, and I suppose I should count myself lucky that she is so uninterested in liquor that those bottles sat there for more than two years, totally forgotten!

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!

There is an old expression, to hat someone up, which means to send them on their way; it derives from giving people their hat when the time has come for them to leave. This week it came to mind when I looked up at the top shelf of my closet and noticed a stack of hats that I used to wear for gardening and other outdoor activities, to keep the glare out of my eyes. I realized that those hats had been sitting there gathering dust for years because I now prefer to wear prescription sunglasses instead of hats on sunny days.
 

It’s all too easy for closet shelves to fill up with stuff that once was useful, but hasn’t been touched in ages. Sometimes it’s because of a conscious decision that it might one day be useful again; but more often, it’s simple inertia because the stuff has been there for so long it doesn’t even get noticed anymore. However it might happen, that clutter just needs to get hatted up!

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!

I bought a blouse two years ago with an autumn-leaves pattern that I liked. The colors went together nicely—rust red and dark brown standing out from pale green and gold.
 

Unfortunately, the colors didn’t go nearly as well with the caramel-gold highlights I got when I decided to change my hairstyle last year! I didn’t realize they would clash until I put on the blouse last week, expecting it would be just right for the season. Looked in the mirror, and—well, not so much. Just like leaves falling from the trees, it was that blouse’s time to go!

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!

My house has a hardwood entryway, and last year we replaced the rug inside the front door. Not thinking much about it, I carried the old rug down to the unfinished storage area in the basement and put it on a pile of carpet remnants. While my husband was looking through the remnants recently, he took the old faded rug off the pile and put it down on the concrete floor.
 

When I went into the storage area and saw the old rug, my first reaction was “Gah! Why is this still HERE!” Not only was it frayed at the corners, the colors had faded more than I remembered, the sides were uneven, plus it was all dusty after more than a year in the basement. All I could say was YUCK! I just had to shake my head and wonder, what on earth was I thinking when I kept it?

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!

When my husband and I bought a new washer and dryer last year, keeping the old set (from 1998) seemed like the practical thing to do. After all, it still worked (though noisy and rusty) and our daughter was graduating from college, so we thought she might want it. We put the old set in a corner of the basement where it was out of the way. I am not sure how a carpet remnant ended up on top of it…
 

Our daughter is still living here while she ponders going to graduate school to become a nurse practitioner. She is making good money in her job at the hospital, and it’s highly unlikely she would ever want that rusty old washer and dryer after using our nice new front-loading set for over a year. Trying to be practical just meant clutter! Definitely time to call a thrift store that picks up donations.

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!

Way back behind some cake-decorating stuff on a kitchen shelf, I discovered a toy trash can that held Halloween candy once upon a time. After the candy got eaten, the container ended up buried at the back of the shelf, where it might never have been found again…
 

The lesson here is obvious enough—real trash cans need to be taken out regularly, and so does all the random clutter that builds up in the house when nobody is paying attention!

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!

The ancient coffee table in my living room is not, strictly speaking, clutter. It still holds coffee cups, pizza boxes, etc., just fine. The wood is solid and mostly in good condition, except for the top board in the middle, which has veneer that has gotten chipped. But even though it is not really clutter, I made it this week’s post because it represents an area of my life that has been neglected.
 

The table was a gift 30 years ago from friends who no longer needed it. My husband and I meant to buy new living room furniture after a while, but when we were raising two kids, there was always something else that had a higher priority! And more recently, we looked online and couldn’t find a replacement table that we liked. Coffee tables just aren’t made in those dimensions anymore, but after so many years we’re used to that size and would not feel comfortable with something very different.

So rather than putting up with the annoyance of veneer coming off and those “old stuff” vibes every time we sit down to watch TV, we’ve decided to take the coffee table to a furniture restoration shop and have it redone as good as new. We are not antique collectors and generally prefer a more contemporary look, but there’s an exception for just about everything!

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!

I’ve had three pocket-sized metal boxes from a tea promotion in a kitchen cabinet for many years. Although they have cute designs on the lids, they never were very useful because each of them is so small that it can’t hold more than a half-dozen teabags.
 

I never had any occasion to carry teabags around in a pocket or purse, so these little tins haven’t done much besides take up space on the cabinet shelf. Sometimes I would put a few teabags in one of them if the box from the store was nearly empty; but really, they’re just in the way. Even if they’re cute and cheerful, that doesn’t mean I should keep them forever!

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!