I have things in my house I don't want. The stuff just appears like a hairball on the carpet or a toadstool in the back yard. I have three kids, six cats, two birds, a dog and a husband who's suspicious that I'm a secret hoarder. My garage is full. Even my front lawn is full of poop from by neighbor's dogs. I have bags of bags, boxes filled with boxes and gorged closets. Worst yet, I have forgotten what I put in them. I did investigate the contents of one closet one time. I came away with a large bag of old Loc blocks, seven long red candles with an unpleasant odor, a pink robe with large red roses appliqued on it that was my mother's, two unopened packages of men's underwear, a Ziploc bag filled with socks without partners, a twenty-five year old swimsuit and some green rubber gloves. Before I fled, I had three dead spiders sticking to my pants, two live spiders in my hair and a dehydrated dead mouse by the tail. I haven't returned since and am too cowardly to repeat this profitless adventure.
No doubt there are more interesting things in my closets but that doesn't mean I want to go there. Life is like that. It is full of interesting places that I don't want to go to. Hell is first on my list. I'd like to know where it is and who is there, but I don't want to go there. Hell is followed closely by a pig farm, prison, Big foots home, the public landfill, a slaughterhouse and a junior high school. A morgue would also be an interesting place to visit as long as nobody moved.
Collecting things just adds to this problem. Hobbies can rapidly get out of control. You start with one antique button, but that isn't enough. Then it's twenty and twenty quickly escalates to a hundred. It has been like that for me with a couple things. I confess to being a aqua phobic numismatic bibliophile. I don't swim, collect shinny round things and books. My husband is suspicious of this. I ignore him.
This is why I approached LibraryThing with a gimlet eye. Would I want to record my phobic collection for everyone to see? I signed in to the site and tentatively added one book. Then I added two more in quick succession. By the tenth book I was hooked. I leaped from my chair and scurried about my house recording books from every shelf and pile. I didn't think this would be a dangerous undertaking until I stepped on a sleeping cat's tail. By the time my heart returned to it's normal rhythm I had fifty items cataloged and was busily scribbling notes on other entries.
LibraryThing turned out to be a terrific and unexpectedly gratifying addition to my life. This is my opinion of course. My husband is convinced I'm over-productive in certain areas and is earnestly looking for a treatment center for me. I'm happy. Until he finds one I'm free to collect and catalog to my soul's satisfaction.
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1 comment:
Dear Dlight,
Stuff, junk, crap and clutter are taking over my life. Do I really need all this stuff? And now it is Christmas, more stuff!
About seven years ago, I downsized from a 3400 square foot house to a 1700 townhouse. Every square of this place is utilized. I spend days rearranging and storing, but nothing is any better. I think I need to rent a storage unit!
You mention all the places you want to visit. I want to visit the place all the missing socks go!
Glad you like librarything.com. I wrote the module and the squeaky little voice you hear in the podcast is me.
Wouldn't be great if we could virtually arrange our closets, cupboards and drawers!
Laura Warren
Net 2.0 team
Downtown Bremerton
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