Out with the old...in with the new

By nature, I am a purger. I love to organize things and throw old things away (or give them to Goodwill). This part of my personality, however, is the exact opposite of my clutter-bug, pack-rat husband, which sometimes causes us to come to blows...figuratively, of course! ;-) Our most recent project has been clearing out the guest bedroom in anticipation of my sister and mother who are both coming to stay for parts of the summer. Last night we spent over 4 hours clearing out the paper files by the old computer desk. The shredder and I became one. It was a beautiful thing to hear the whir, whir, whir and know that all of that space would be empty soon - and ready to be filled back up with more garbage in the next 6 months, I'm sure. Oh, well. We realized the difference between us when I kept shredding away and Ryan looked at me and said, "You're not even the least bit curious what those papers are?" Ummmm...no. I'm shredding our phone bills from the year two thousand what? He would probably have sat and looked at every bill and reminisced about the year 2003 for a few hours. Do I care who I called in November of '03? Not hardly. What I care about is seeing those clear shelves just waiting to be filled with pretty things.

At that moment, I realized that I have an addiction. I am addicted to the new. I get bored easily and I love to replace old items with sparkling new things. I love the way new things look in my house - something new on the shelf or the wall makes the house just feel fresh again. There is so much potential out there - so many different styles, colors, patterns. My mother calls me "fickle" - but I just like to say that I love change. If it weren't such a huge hassle - and a crazy expense - I'd love to move every 5 years just to get to decorate a new house! I love my house...but a NEW house would be so much fun. I also love how new clothes look straight off the hanger - no wrinkles, no little fuzzies, no wash wear or fade. Just perfect, crisp looking and NEW. I gave up washing all of Ava's clothes before she wears them about a year ago. I realized that when I wash things first, they lose that "never-been-worn-before" look that I love so much. Which brings me to my second addiction...little girl clothing. Ava has crazy amounts of clothing. I keep justifying it by saying things like, "It's not like I'm overspending!" or even better "There are other people who buy more than this for their kids!" But the truth is, I just love buying clothes for her because I hate buying clothes for myself! It is so much more fun when you know that no matter what you choose, it's going to look cute as a button on her!!!

So, watch out - you never know when this blog will look completely different...you know, it'll look NEW! ;-)