Bye Bye Baby

"Bye, bye-bye, baby, bye-bye

I gotta be seeing you around

When I change my living standard

and I move uptown

Bye-bye, baby, bye-bye"

-Janis Joplin

So half way through weeding through my books I notice that my 'keep' pile is starting to pale in comparison to the 'donate' pile and I found myself playing out these scenarios in my head about when I might need a particular book (in this case, one that’s about herb gardens and uses for the herbs both fresh and dried).  

In my mind, I can picture myself standing in my future kitchen, warm sunlight streaming in through the window, and me upset with myself for having gotten rid of a book that would tell me what to do with my fresh basil or how best to plant my nightshades (I suppose in my future life I have no internet...).  This, of course, is entirely nonsensical thinking.  

Over the next few years I will be living in a rental in Tacoma and then Seattle where I will be finishing my BS and planning for after that.  So where in all of that will I have time to stand in a kitchen and fret over how/when/where to plant fresh herbs and how to best cook and bake with them?  

Quite simply, I won’t.  

Holding onto something because of some future what-if makes no sense when my life is in no way heading into that direction.  And that is how the clutter starts.

That which I am keeping

That which I am donating 

Quite a bit less, but my shelf looks much better, and I am happy to know that someone will make use of something that I cannot.