Well it is February already. I wonder how many of you have already had ideas about clearing out some of your stuff? Yes, I've had those ideas too. Here it is a rainy February night in Northern California. We've had some great Pacific storms during the last week. I was working at home and came into the kitchen for another cup of coffee. Suddenly it sounded like pellets pounding over my head. I looked up at the skylight. We were having a hailstorm. White pellets rained down for about 10 minutes. They covered the ground in a blanket. It was the closest thing to snow that I've ever seen since I've lived here for 30 years.

Just as I got distracted telling that story about white snow-like pellets, I easily get distracted from clearing out old stuff. But this certainly is the time to do it and I've set up this weekend to complete the task. I can't even fit anything into any of the drawers in the files any more. And there is nothing that is more ornery than pieces of paper sticking out and spilling all over the place. It makes me think I've forgotten to pay some bill or worse. Pieces of loose paper make me  think one of them might be some important financial document that will lurk around at the bottom of a great heap racking up fees while I am not paying attention.

Then too, about clearing out stuff, there are the things rediscovered in the process. I didn't have enought storage for vases, so I put two in a bookcase, one on a shelf and generally scattered the rest around. So now I never notice them. When I need a vase, I find myself going to the storage I have where three fit. They happen to be the three I like the least which is why I didn't put them out in plain view. I always say to myself I wish I had a different vase. The other day I looked around and remembered that , in fact, I do have several.

So clearing out clutter is a good and cathartic thing. It reminds me to look around at the things that are so present, I don't even see them any more. This also tells me I probably don't need all this stuff to begin with.

How will I go about clearing out clutter?

I will do it one piece of paper at a time I may pull out folders and just put them in piles, ones to keep, ones to go through. And as to the knick-knacks lying around, I may rearrange them or at least I will look at them for the first time in some years.

I noticed the other day that I am surrounded by the colors that I love. They happen to all be green/gold/burgundy winter colors. I feel very comfortable all cozied up in the midst of these colors and this clutter of mine. So I need to respect that as well. Because as I go about this weekend I may not throw out or give away too much stuff. I do like the vases that I've stashed around. At least I'll probably use them more as a result of this exercise.

But as to all the unnecessary paper, why do insurance companies have to send us what seems like three thousand copies of the same thing? What a waste of paper, and why have I kept it? It will have to be shredded. Another project.

But it will feel good to be free of the idea that there is some threatening shard of paper lurking somewhere under a heap of others.