Afghanistan Victory

To deal with my inability to actually throw things out, I've been exploring a new concept I call "not bringing unnecessary crap into my home in the first place." I'm probably not going to win any gold medals for it, but I like to think I'm only competing against myself.

For example, in the last week I've seen all three parts of the political theater marathon The Great Game: Afghanistan, which meant three separate trips to the Skirball Center on three different days -- three opportunities to acquire Playbills to add to my already large stash.

I showed remarkable willpower by taking a Playbill only the first night I was there. The other two times I only took the short inserts for that particular installment. A small victory but a victory nevertheless.

Summer Cleaning

For my birthday on Saturday, I decided to have some friends over. That meant I had to do some cleaning, and I'm moderately proud of what I accomplished. I moved some things that had been sitting on window sills, oh, probably for the three years that I've lived here. I went through lots of Clorox wipes (or at least the generic Target equivalent) cleaning and threw some things out but mostly the clutter was simply shifted from chairs and floor to closets and a storage bin.

So not that much was accomplished, but now that I at least have better organized clutter I can concentrate on cleaning it up one pile at a time. I started by working on a pile in my bedroom today. I organized some stray Playbills that were sitting there and found an old Daily Variety Gotham from the days when I got a free comp subscription. I actually learn some interesting things from reading 8-year-old news, such as that there was once a plan to turn About a Boy into a TV series, that Showtime planned a pilot for a series about NYC politics based on the book The Rackets, starring William Baldwin and directed by Sydney Pollack, that Ashton Kutcher was supposed to make Seriously Dude, Where's My Car? for release in 2004 and that The L Word was originally titled Earthlings?!

Time to Change

I am determined to end my hoarding ways. But it's going to be hard. I hate to throw anything out unless I'm absolutely sure I'll never have any use for it, and one thing about being a journalist and teaching a writing class is that there's always a chance that this book or that newspaper clipping will come in handy.

Now that I've been laid off, it's even more crucial that my apartment be a place where I can work and relax without clutter holding me back. And I've been single for a long time, so I think it's time I make room in my life for someone else, physically and emotionally. That means I'll be chronically my anti-hoarding journey here -- and hopefully not using my computer as an excuse not to get my life in order. Here goes ...

The biggest thing I seem to accumulate is paper, not surprising given my job. I try to print only what I need to, not only to be green but because once I have a print-out in front of me it becomes one more thing that clutters up my life.

So paper be gone! Tonight I'm throwing out two pages of a Mediabistro job listing from April 2004. A website called Pulpsyndicate.com was seeking articles and columns, and you never know. Six years later, what are the odds it's still around?