If I whip that counter, I can have my aquatic seminars RIGHT HERE at my house, with sales available . . .

So what's your trick? Do you fill your house up like a pool to use for aquatic seminars? That's a heckuva way to keep things clean! ;-D

On Thursday I took a dozen partial cans of old paint to the environmental hazard dump station, clearing space on my pantry shelves. All week I've continued to compress file folders as I move them from the closet cabinet to the other cabinets around the house.

Yesterday I picked up a couple of plastic magazine file boxes and milk crate file boxes at the recycle/dump site, out of the bin. It really is appalling the stuff that Americans throw away out if ignorance and laziness. Most of the stuff in the trash bins should have been given to a thrift store or at least put in the recycle bins. Yes, this is picking up clutter, but the point is, if I don't need these I can put these at my curb and someone who does need them will pick them up to use them.

My windfall from the escrow account will allow me to pick up parts for a couple of things that need attention, and I make a point of always doing more than one errand on a trip, so I'll probably drop more paper off at the recycle center. But this time I'll put my shredded paper in a box. That way I can drop it in the recycle bin. Yesterday I dropped a bag of shreds in the trash because I couldn't see them making much sense of paper shreds on the sorting conveyor belt.

Andrea, congratulations on not bringing any new stuff home. I was at the used book store to pick up one book last week but left with three. "My name is Maggie and I'm a bookaholic."

Liz, I need to put up some shelves for my son. Maybe this list will serve as a reminder. I cleaned out his room big-time over the holiday season, and he hasn't added that much stuff, but he doesn't seem to have enough places to put things.

SRS