A Beautiful Mind

There is something about another person's junk that just irritates me.  Especially my kids' junk.  All three kids leave a trail of junk through the house all day long.  And the boys hoard massive amounts of additional junk in their rooms.  Ok, I know that I leave my own trail and I hoard my own junk but their junk is just more irritating.  You know why?  Because I don't.

Well, maybe because I know that I have to clean up their junk and their junk doesn't hold any meaning for me.  I cleaned their junk this week.  I was surprised by the level of hoarding that Keith had achieved.  But nothing ever surpasses the shock that Patrick's collections bring.  6 boxes and one drawer.  Bits and pieces of the most random stuff.  And you know what a lot of it was?  Garbage.  No lie, just plain old dirty tissue, old receipt, clothing tag garbage.  He doesn't have a garbage can in his room and is too lazy to walk his trash down the hall.  yep, my child.

But then he has his stuff.  His bits and pieces of things that have value.  He might not know where it came from or what it is for but he is saving it. Or maybe he does know.  Like his dad he saves every little doodad that might be useful someday.  Scraps of paper, secret battle plans, you have no idea.  His mind is amazing and I know I will never figure out how it works.....

And I've given up on getting upset about the junk, I just schedule it in with everything else.  Put it on the list... #14 Manage the junk.