Well, it's been almost an entire month in the new place. It doesn't feel like a big, empty house anymore. It looks and feels like a "recently moved into" house. There are a few areas that are set up and nice and decorated, yet there are also random boxes and totes on the floor, and things that don't have homes yet. The back of my Equinox right now has about five big bags of stuff to go to the Goodwill one of these days, and every week so far our garbage bin has been completely filled. We have a nice mountain of cardboard waiting to be burned this spring, too.
As overwhelming as the task of going through literally everything we own and finding new places for it (whether in our house, in the trash, or in the back of the 'Nox) (oh and occasionally but rarely, into someone else's house) can be, it does feel good to go through, take a mental inventory, and declutter. It can help one discover a lot about oneself.
For instance: I have a lot of pens. There, it's official. Admitting the problem is the first step to solving the problem, right?! I don't know when my pen addiction started. I think I've had it forever. I remember being in middle school junior high school and even late elementary school and being enamored with pens. Pens with colorful inks, pens with scented inks, gel pens, funky-shaped pens. I had a bracelet that was also a pen once. And a pen shaped like a hip bone (wish I could find that now, I'd give it to my mom!). And pens that looked like silverware, real life-sized forks and spoons and knives only they were pens. These days, I'm way more into how pens write than how they look. You know, being that I'm older and wiser and stuff...function means more than fashion.
Do you want to know how many pens I've found during this move?
When I was packing up the stuff from my old desk, the one drawer was like 95% pens. Perfectly good pens, but I didn't like the way most of them wrote, so they weren't in rotation. As I envisioned myself putting all those pens into a box to bring them to a new place where they would likely sit and never be used, it occurred to me that I might have a problem. (HA HA HA! Nah, it occurred to me long before then. It also occurs to me every time I go out to eat and the person I'm with warns me not to steal the waitresses' pen. For the record, I don't steal waitresses' pens; but I just might replace them with another pen from my collection. Except if it's a gel pen; it's not even funny to consider copping someone else's gel pen.) I ended up leaving a handful of them for the boy (with his permission), taking a handful with, and *gulp* throwing away the rest. Also, by a handful, I mean quantity-wise, 5 or fewer, not as many as I could scoop up in one hand. BIG difference.
Now, don't start telling me that I shouldn't have thrown them away, I should've saved them and donated them somewhere. I've done that, plenty of times. I just didn't that time because I was on a mission to declutter, not to pass the clutter to someone else.
Besides, that was just one drawer! Just the tip of the iceberg, as they say. A drop in the bucket.
So, then I was unpacking things, namely tote bags and purses. Going through and emptying them before I put them away, because I also have the undesirable habit of not unpacking purses or tote bags before I switch to different purses or tote bags. (I don't have issues, I have subscriptions.) Found more pens! Most of them weren't worth keeping, but I did find the mother lode of Baldwin Area Medical Center pens. It's funny, I could tell which era of my life I had used the particular tote bag or purse by the types of pens I found in them. I found pens dating all the way back to nursing school. So the BAMC pens were a nostalgic little find, and of course I couldn't throw them away because BAMC doesn't even exist anymore. That makes them...COLLECTABLES!! Alright, alright; I'm mostly kidding, but also not because those were some smooth-writing pens. I kept a handful of them. Actually, the "mother lode" was only a handful anyway.
Right now, in a box next to my desk, waiting to be sorted and unpacked/tossed, is a box of random office things. Including a gallon-sized bag of pens. Not just a few pens; it's stuffed full of pens.
But wait! There's more! When I was on the Tote Bag and Purse Cleanout kick last week, I actually found a tote bag that was literally full of pens. Read that again: a TOTE BAG FULL OF PENS. And not a small little tote bag, of course. That is actually the point where I decided to be done going through tote bags for the time being. So. Many. Pens. It was too much to contemplate at that moment.
I should just toss them, or donate them (I do prefer to donate them, and the hubby pointed out that he can never find a pen at church when he needs one, so...) but as I mentioned earlier, I love a good pen. What if my new favorite pen is in that bag?!? I have to look to be sure. I'm down to one cup of pens on my desk, but I can always switch one of those pens out if I find one I like better.
I. Do. Not. Need. More. Pens.
I. Do. NOT. Need. More. Pens. EVER!!
To answer the question I posed, about if you want to know how many pens I've found during this move, I have no idea. A lot. Too many. It doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem at first, because pens are so small and fit in so many convenient places, and you can tell yourself they're practical things because there's always someone somewhere who needs a pen when they think they won't.
But when you have a freaking tote bag full of pens -- each one different and unique, it's not as if the whole tote was full of boxes or bags of pens like you'd buy them at the store -- you begin to realize that maybe you don't need to collect them like souvenirs from every place you go. That just because a company is giving them away doesn't mean you need to take one. Even if they look cool. You know what? The novelty pens write like crap, and I can say this from a lifetime's worth of experience.
My favorite pen is the good ol' BIC Crystal, in blue. The ones you can get a whole package of for like $1.00 during back-to-school sales. Best pens ever!! The next runner-up is the BIC Round Stic. They don't make 'em like they used to, but they're still a great pen. Also in blue. I'm not a fan of black ink.
Speaking of pens, I gotta get back to work. This has been another sneak peek into the craziness that is my mind. Today's blog entry was sponsored by BIC, Pentel, and Uniball. They just don't know it yet.
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