Charles Jensen | Writer

We are celebrating the end of the calendar year by going through our tiny apartment room by room to nominate items for voting off our island.

Today: kitchen, “dining room,” hall closets, living room. Tomorrow: bedroom, bathroom.

We have a small cluster of items whose utility has outlived our need for them–clothes, some books, and random household stuff. In a related story, taking everything out of its place, examining it, and putting it back smarter has resulted in better organization and, at least for now, the illusion of more space.

Although I’m not a naturally spatially-neat person, having an orderly environment is actually important to normal brain functioning for me. When the mess starts to get out of hand, my anxiety builds. Having a lot of stuff (as we do) creates a lot of tension because of this.

We plan to move soon, so this is partly prep for the inevitable “Honey, THIS? Do we need to move this several hundred miles to make our lives complete?” conversations.

Today we did not bring our A game. We brought our B- game. We did okay. The pile is about 1/4 of our “dining room.” It could be bigger. And perhaps after we finish off the rest of this place, it will be.

Wish us well.