After receiving a score of 92 on the Clutter Quality of Life Scale, indicating High Impact of clutter on her quality of life, Kat had to admit that maybe, just maybe, what people had been telling her was actually true.
She went back to the Buried in Treasures book. It was while reading that that she’d had her lightbulb moment.
Now what did it say again?
She went straight to the chapter about Bad Guys. Those ladies at the library talk had mentioned the Bad Guys too. The authors wrote about how one of the bad guys was letting unhelpful beliefs get in your way. They said that it was common for anyone to have strong, inflexible thoughts and beliefs to the point of being unhelpful. Sure enough, Bill’s described her that way often enough.
Her mind flashed back to that time when she fished her dad’s old fishing magazines from the bin so that she could play the hero and pass them on to the lad down the street. The plan didn’t go so well. Strangely the young lad wasn’t interested and before Kat could find a suitable home for them, she ended up tripping over after weeks of dodging the pile in her front hallway.
Bill’s words came back to haunt her now. “If you hadn’t been so concerned about donating these in exactly the right way, you wouldn’t be in hospital now.” Turns out he was right. They were nice magazines though. Maybe Bill wasn’t one of the bad guys after all. Maybe it was that belief.
Kat came to the question that said, “If I make a mistake, the results could be disastrous.” Finally the authors of the book understood her!
Her new friend and declutter buddy, Mary from the library, phoned just then and Kat shared her new insights. “If I don’t look after Kylie’s old school projects, who will? Not Kylie. She doesn’t care about them at all. That’ll change when Tiffany needs them to do her own school projects. After all, Kylie was so pleased I kept her old christening gown. Tiff wore it at her christening too. That’s a family heirloom now and it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t take responsibility.”
Mary chimed in, “Oh dear, Kat, there’s a big difference between a christening gown and some old dog-eared spelling tests and construction paper and texta poster presentations.”
Kat silently processed this comment.
Mary continued, “Anyway, I was calling to tell you about my idea for Christmas this year. I thought you’d be interested. I’ve decided to include Christmas in my decluttering project. This year I’m not buying anything new. I’ll use up all the decorations, and paper, and cards I already have. I’ve even got a Christmas cake from last year that I never used. And I’m not buying any new gifts either. I’ll use up things out of the present stash. Some special people are going to get treasured family heirlooms. You can’t it with you, and I may as well give them away while I can enjoy the look on their faces.”
“I’m calling it my Perfectly Imperfect Christmas. Imagine that”, Mary went on, “My house will be lighter but my bank account won’t be.”
Kat was unimpressed. “Well that’s hardly the spirit of Christmas. It sounds perfectly awful.”
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Catch up on the past Adventures of Kat here…
