Wednesday, May 04, 2005

What to Keep, What to Toss?

Last week's recovery of my graduate poetry text has prompted my latest effort to clear up my basement library/office. This used to be where my father kept his medical books, and for a while it was where I stuck every book, magazine, and memento that no longer fit in my bedroom.

The worst cause of clutter? Blank paper. Notebooks, looseleaf, memo pads—kept from when writing was uncharted territory I wasn't sure how to explore.

Ironically, the book I have mostly filled with notes for my last five or six projects is a one-subject, 70-sheet spiral notebook.

A close second-worst cause of clutter: syllabi, term papers, and tests from college. I may have kept these out of a subconscious desire to do better in those classes.

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