Melissa Barrett

Well, since the moving companies are coming to asses our junk this week, I decided I should start to do a little work myself.

One item they want for insurance purposes is a list of everything plus its value. The list with values is no problem for me. I can remember almost to the dollar how much I paid for everything that I have. What is a bit distressing is the amount of junk we’ve picked up over the last year and a half.

I mean, it doesn’t feel like I’m out there shopping all the time, but I walked through the downstairs rooms this morning noting all the new things that have appeared in our lives and I ended up scribbling out over 4 pages! And I still haven't gotten to the dreaded *room* upstairs that’s full of all the miscellaneous junk that we rarely use.

Oh, yeah. I also have an entire corner piled high with shoe boxes, wine boxes, and zip lock bags full of rocks, shells, and other things stolen from nature - some of them still very stinky. (The movers will hate me. But I will offer them coffee during their cigarette break to try and make up for it.)

When I get back home I’m going to take that pledge to not buy any new stuff for a year (except school cloths, paint…things like that). Craig’s list – here I come.

This last statement is sure to give my husband a slight heart attack. Which is odd, you'd think the 4 pages of new junk would do it, but no, I think it'll be the latter. He's got *big plans* for our return to the land of plenty.