Shoes, Leggings and Puzzling Notebook Entries by Pat Kennedy

LUCY BURDETTE: It's always a treat when our friend Pat Kennedy says "I think I have a blog for you!" I bet lots of you will be able to relate to her dilemma. Thanks for visiting Pat!

PAT KENNEDY: I am a reasonably tidy person. Not obnoxiously orderly, but on a scale of 1-10, I’d be a 7.5 – about 70% of the time. There is one major exception – the stubborn piles that sit there day after day never getting much bigger but not diminishing either. They silently taunt me, “When are you ever going to take care of this?”  

Paper piles are the most annoying with “curated collections” all over the floor of my office – all “to be filed.”  I did a major paper discard several years ago but there remain two small notebooks and a yellow-lined pad that have resided on my desk for at least two years. One page reminds me to make a dentist appointment for my late husband – with a check mark and the date Feb 22, 2019.  I can probably discard that now. But a little note at the bottom of that page has “cancel the WSJ online account.”  Did I do that already? I think I better keep that page until I investigate again next week or sometime anyway. Pages have cryptic scribbled notes such as “homestead…Fla…Monroe…property appraisers.”  What does that refer to?  Because it has sat on my desk for so long surely means that it is very important. Right?  Even more compelling is a whole page written in big block letters “GEORGE, roving mike!” 

Another pile is on the floor of my closet which has about 10 pairs of black leggings. I keep promising myself to sort them by season and level of decomposition. Some of them are so worn that they are see-through in all the wrong places. The legging pile has been occupying valuable closet floor space for more than a year – which was when we moved into this house.  

And shoes!  I have plenty of my own which tend to collect in the living room by my reading chair but since I have grandsons in residence for the summer, there is a pile of shoes by the front door which drifts out into the hallway becoming an ever-growing trip hazard. 

I think I’ll add a line to the yellow-lined pad. “Make boys move shoes.”  In about a year, I’ll wonder what that cryptic note meant, of course, and will once again decide to keep the pad on my desk.

And you, dear readers, are you a hoarder of paper, leggings and shoes?  Or are you disciplined about stuff and keep a tidy environment 100% of the time?

Ps from Lucy, I've been to Pat's house and didn't notice any of these issues--but maybe that says more about me than her??

Patricia Kennedy is a retired marketing communications professional who runs a bed and breakfast at Long Pond, Massachusetts and Key West, Florida for grandchildren and other relatives and  friends. Rooms are fully booked for the foreseeable future.