Today’s entry was supposed to be more literal than figurative. I meant to turn the soil in the garden and prepare the earth for planting. But we have had major rains for the past 24 hours, so I will have to save that one for another day.

Instead, I chose another Monday night easy task–I threw open the doors on this treasure chest, which sits right in the middle of our ground-zero den, and what do you suppose I found?

A whole bunch of nothing squirreled away for no apparent reason, untouched for longer than I can remember.

I sent an entire box of old mail order catalogs down to the basement with the rest of the recycling. I filled a trash bag with infant toys, including at least one electronic gizmo that I know was never even used, and sent that down the basement as well to await the next charity pick-up. And the stray books that had somehow ended up buried down here I unearthed and returned to their appropriate bookshelves.

The only thing I held onto that perhaps I should have tossed was The Baby Book. But I figure if my mother can hold onto Dr. Spock, I can hold onto Dr. Sears.

What I did tonight I could do over and again throughout the house–and with a couple of hundred days ahead of me, I am sure I will be tackling other “buried treasures” as the days go on. Upstairs in the office, for example: I know I have an old folder containing scraps of writing from more than two decades ago, labeled “Rework or Throw Away.” I think it’s safe to say I can throw away whatever is in there. Then there are still the filing cabinets of “important” papers that need to be shred and tossed. And let’s not forget those “collectible” newspaper clippings and old magazine articles….

That’s all the easy stuff. What about the plastic crate of photos from when my oldest was just a few months old (back before I had a digital camera)? And what about the boxes of letters from old friends? How much of the kids’ school work and art work do I keep?

Once we get into this terrain, that’s when “enduring value” becomes a little trickier to sort out. For tonight, though, I’m sticking with the easy stuff. The only question now is: what do I do with this empty storage space?