Dear NYPL,

I love you. You saved me oodles of money this past year and provided hours of entertainment on subway rides to and from work. I love that I do not need to buy books that will simply clutter my apartment and empty my wallet.

Thank you for all the fictional books, new release DVDs and workout videos that you let me borrow and enjoy. I will strive to maintain your trust by returning items by the date on my checkout receipt.

Thank you.

Love,

Reserve Shelf # Christ 4627

P.S. Now, if you could please acquire a drop off box for the Columbus Branch. I do not enjoy waiting in line to bring back the items you let me borrow.

Cause for Creation

I recently completed a purge that spawned from a quote - "Outer order brings inner peace". This purge began with physical objects that were cluttering my studio apartment (books, clothes, broken Swivel Sweepers), but then spread to a particular responsibility in my life that was longer providing peace. Without delving into too much detail, this was something that I had volunteered to do and now had started to become a unbearable burden. This responsibility had taken over and thrown life out of balance. Therefore, with the hope of more time and less stress I removed this responsibility from my weekly repertoire.

It is difficult to eliminate things from life, probably because change is a hard thing and you never know if the end result will create more happiness than status quo. When I finally let it go, I not only found myself with the desired additional time in my week, but excessive extra time.

At first it was liberating and I enjoyed doing things I hadn't done in a while- I took productive showers, painted my nails, cleaned my apartment with a sponge and soap rather than just a Clorox wipe. Then the weekend came and I found myself staring at the wall wondering what I was going to fill my time with. Danny and I tried to come up with activities to help me acclimate to a life of leisure.

1. Prepare for Christmas by going to Kmart and purchasing a 7ft tree. Check.
- End of List -

I never realized how much time I devoted every week to this responsibility and the void I would have to fill. And so, I decided I needed a new hobby, well a few new hobbies. I have already decided that I will start studying for the GMAT, but also, this blog is a new project. So Welcome.

...More to come on the additional activities I'm going to attempt. Call it reCluttering my life.

Some inspiration that kept me seeking order and balance during this difficult process of purging:
"He who does not get fun and enjoyment out of every day needs to reorganize his life."
"Organization, however, is no substitute for making the tough decision to purge items from your home."