Things 145-150

Another baby nap, another shelf. Today we have this lovely assortment:

From 365 things

- Yet another Chicago Fire item. This time, it's a photo album featuring team pictures. Chris went to a Chicago Fire fundraiser a few years ago and got all this stuff.
- More cards from my baby shower.
- CD-ROM explaining how to install Ikea kitchen cabinets.
- Wedding invitation from 2009.
- Old reporter's notebook. This one was partially chewed up by a dog we briefly dog sat a few years ago.
- Thank-you cards I wrote and never sent.

And that concludes this installment of "Just how lazy are Sarah and Chris?"
See y'all next year!

Things 138-144

I swear this is still happening. The holidays, people. That, and Maya's walking.

Anyway, here are some more Things, all found on one shelf of the bookcase.

From 365 things

In no particular order, we have:

- Broken Chicago Fire picture frame
- Wrist band certifying that one of us is, in fact, of legal drinking age
- Stack of receipts
- Cards from my baby shower
- Expired Gap certificates
- Ticket stub
- Casino player's card

Most of the Things above pre-date Maya. You know, that walking, sort-of talking 14-month-old kid. Which goes to show how long it's been since I've cleaned off the shelves of the bookcase.

It also illustrates our pre-baby life. One filled with things like casinos, shopping, and events requiring tickets and/or wrist bands. A life I hardly remember. But as awesome as that life was then, you know what I didn't have? Baby wipes in my purse. Greatest thing ever.

Oh yeah, and Maya.

Things 134-137

The past few weeks have been extremely busy. All those other times I said I was busy? Total lies. This past month has been busy for reals. Still, I managed to find some time to do a little clutter clearing.

First, I took advantage of the newly created space in my filing cabinets to sort and file this bag o' bills and mail.

Thing 134

From 365 things

I'm a little embarrassed to admit how old some of the stuff in that bag was. It all began a year ago when I was on leave. My filing cabinets had gotten over-stuffed, so I couldn't fit another thing in them. I needed to go through all my old bills and purge, but I couldn't find them time or spare hand due to the little creature now attached to me at all times.

At the same time, I had grown too tired to keep up the constant nagging I do regarding Chris* and his inability to do anything with mail. It goes like this: About every two weeks, after I nag for a while, Chris will finally open all the mail he receives. He then recycles stuff he doesn't need, and places stuff that requires action in a pile on the coffee table. Then he never touches it again.

So last year, while tidying up before hosting Christmas Eve dinner, I threw all the piles of mail into this bag. And there it sat until a few weeks ago.

This method of clutter creation will likely be a common theme as I attempt to clean out our office. The task ahead is overwhelming because our office is so filled with piles of crap I haven't had the time or energy to deal with.

Because my head starts to spin every time I walk into the office and look at everything that needs to be done, I decided to start relatively small with this bookcase:

From 365 things

I started with the upper left-hand corner of the bookcase and pitched these three Things:

Things 135-137

From 365 things

Old batteries, old receipts and old business cards. I'm not sure how or why we still have these, but such is the story of our house. I'd like to point out that the area I cleared on this bookcase was about 1 percent of the whole thing. And this bookcase is only one small part of our cluttered office. So get comfy. We're gonna be here a while.

* Chris saw a little preview of this post as I was writing it and asked me to add the following: "Chris is the best husband, father and dog owner in the universe. However, he is not good at sorting mail." The man speaks the truth.