Inside the Box

When I clean my room, I generally pick up all the obvious stuff first.  I hang up my clothes or put them in the hamper, I put things in the drawers they belong in, and I recycle/throw things out as needed.  At this point I am left with stuff I don't want to throw out but maybe I should or things I need to organize better.  What do I do now?  I put this stuff in a pile by my bed or in a corner and there it stays for a month until I'm in the mood to clean again.  When I am in the mood to clean again, I generally shift through the pile again but the problem remains more or less the same.  So, I put everything in a box.  I tell myself I will sort through it when I have nothing better to do.  Today I looked for jobs, watched a movie with my roommate, played my ukulele, and sorted through a box of miscellaneous odds and ends.  Best of all, I documented it as I went so I could blog about it.  Here are the highlights:

• Toy Story 3 - My sister gave it to my for Christmas but I haven't watched it yet because I know that it will cry and I haven't felt like crying yet.

• A bunch of viola music.

• A business card from a small shop I did some X-mas shopping in 2 Christmases ago.  I met Tony Danza that day.  I told him I loved him in Angels in the Outfield.

• Photocopied chapters for my Global Slavery.  I'm keeping them because they are easily applicable to the way animals are enslaved today.

• A black tank top that is too small but I wear to bed sometimes.

• Paycheck from the Franklin Institute.

• Pictures from 24-Hour Movie Marathons.

• Fresh Prince of Bel-Air back card from Blockbuster.

• A heartfelt letter I found in a donated book when I worked at a used bookstore.

• A list of songs I want to write for my musical based on living in this apartment with my roommates.  

• Pencils my friend Zo gave me for my B-day.

• Lady Gaga gloves from the DJ at my old roommates wedding.  I'm wearing them now.  Maybe I'll wear them to work tomorrow.

• Movie ticket stub to The Box.  Awesome movie.

• 3 movie ticket stubs to Julie and Julia from when I went with my family.

• Toy Story 3 ticket stubs.

• A large, plastic coin with the 10 commandments on it put in my viola case when I was busking.

After going through the box, I put my viola music together and into a bag that I found in the box.  I recycled somethings.  The smaller things like tickets and business cards I put in small boxes I found in the bigger box.  As I sorted through everything I thought, the way I deal with a messy room is a lot like the way I deal with messes in my life.  I put them in smaller containers where I don't have to see or worry about them and they stay more or less the same for longer than they should.  Some of these problems are beyond my control and others are not.  For those I can fix, I should.  For those I can't, I aspire to do something creative with like write a song or movie.  In doing so, my problems might not be fixed per say but at least they would be organized and nice to look at.