A cure for packrat-itis?

If there were a magic pill for losing my packrat tendencies, I'd love to take it. Since there isn't one, the next best thing is a show on TLC called "Clean Sweep". If you've never seen this show, a professional organizer, a designer, a carpenter, and a host of helpers swoop in, clear out two rooms full of STUFF (otherwise known to the people who don't own it as "junk"), help them figure out what items are really important to them, sell the remainder in a garage sale, and transform the two rooms into nice, neat, usable living space.

Now, I have to admit that I did (and still do) have a lot of stuff... But with this TV show as inspiration, I have, over the past two years, slowly but surely whittled away at the gigantic stack of boxes I pulled out of basement and storage locker once upon a time. With the coming of a new roommate this summer (hi, Jess!), I made an effort to finally get the last of the boxes cleared out of the back bedroom and sewing room, and this summer, my plan was to finally get the last boxes cleared out, and finally be (mostly) clutter-free.

The good news is that I am making real progress! I've managed to clean out all but two boxes from the living room, I've purged even more paper from my "to be filed" boxes, and have been filing all the "to be filed" items this week. With just a little more work tonight, my living room will look and act like a living room, not a cluttered, junked out living room, and by the end of the weekend, my dining room should be just a dining room and not a storage area. I can't wait to have people over... for TEA! :)