Throwing out the Garbage

It's a simple enough concept: if you have trash, just throw it away.  What else needs to be said?  But what if you can't tell if something is garbage or not?  We are bombarded by things on a daily basis and sometimes a little bit of this and a little bit of that add up to a lot of junk.

Step two of my journey to The House that Cleans Itself is choosing a room and looking at everything that is in there.  I literally had to take a camera and take pictures in the room.  That lets me see not only what things belong in there, or what belongs in another room, but also what I may have that simply needs to go out the door.  In my kitchen, I had milk bottles, diet soda bottles, newspapers, shoes, and unsorted junk mail. 

There are obvious trash items and recycling items, things that we know have to go out the door.  But what about the mail?  I have to sort out what is mine, what is Richard's, and what is simply another recyclable donation. I'm in charge of paying the medical bills, and he takes the household bills.  Then there's everything else.  What isn't important is garbage.  Even so, the junkmail itself has to be sorted.  What if there is a coupon in there for something I buy regularly?  How much of the mail literally addressed to me goes into the trash?

Generally, out of 5 things that are addressed to me, maybe, just maybe one of those items is something that is relevant.  There are ten credit card offers a week at a minimum.  Then there are the non-profit organizations asking for charitable donations.  Now I agree with them, but I can't personally give every one of those companies thirty-five dollars a pop.  There are too many.  I have to pick and choose carefully what needs to be addressed and what simply needs to be tossed out the door.

I've found that the real world is kind of like sorting the mail.  There are certain constant responsibilities I have that cannot be ignored.  I have to pick and choose what recreational activities and volunteer work in which I allow myself to be involved.  I have four children and I stay at home with two of them.  If I am the room mother for both of my school age children and volunteer for every single thing in their classes, then I'm ignoring the younger ones.  If I volunteer for all the scout troops and charity companies that want me to send out letters to my friends and neighbors, then I will have no time left to care for my home.

Don't get me wrong.  For those supermoms and superdads, I am grateful, and I applaud their tenacity and ability to keep up with all the schedules.  But I'm not built that way, and if I don't learn how to say, "No," to some things and put it out of my mind like I toss out the trash, then I'm left with a life that is so cluttered with doing that I have no time to do what is most important for my family.  Perhaps when I've got my own home in better order, I'll be available to do more activities.  But for now, my biggest job is to be there for my children, cook for them, wash their clothes, clean the house and get it uncluttered; and that means taking all the other offers of duty that bring more burdens of responsibility and tossing them out the door.