Last night I couldn’t sleep, and so I watched Modern Family and then Hoarders via hulu. Even though our house is pretty neat, this was 2 am so of course I wondered if I am heading for a hoarding problem. There’s a basket of hand washables near the washer that I just can’t seem to get to, and on the kitchen counter I always have a 3 inch stack of mail I plan to re-read, which I keep sorting through and replenishing, so it always stays at that 3 inch height, never eliminated. In the basement are games and puzzles that haven’t been touched in years. On my bedside table are 6 books in play.

Plus, it’s Christmas, so even though Lydia, Grace, and I cleaned out our closets 2 weeks ago, I have brought an equivalent amount of new stuff into the house, currently in hiding and waiting to be wrapped and distributed. On the enclosed porch, which doubles as a winter refrigerator, are trays and trays of wrapped food and packages of paper goods for tonight’s party. There are poinsettias in the living room cluttering my sight line.

The Internet: a place for our shared hoarding, I think, whether information, ephemera, or wished-for holiday objects.

And still I dream of secret rooms.

More thoughts on this topic, much more of course, after Christmas.
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This useless objects Christmas tree is by another Jane, found on the style files via LikeCOOL via my brother Brian. The tree reminds me of the wonderful I Spy books by Walter Wick that Lydia and I were once obsessed with.