(...)

...looking around the spare room I've shoehorned most of my "stuff" into it's become clear to me that I have a Problem. I cna't exactly blame my parents for this completely but... It's my own fault, taking the habits I've learned from them and branching out, they go to garage sales and rummage sales and buy things eextremely cheaply, whereas most of the stuff I wind up w/ I get for free, either from scavenging it or it gets passed along to me from my parents. If it's something I think I might have a use for, I'll keep it, find a spot to put it in, and there ti stays until I uncoverit while looking for something else entirely. While I'm not as bad as my great-aunt was (I don't save every empty container or box and I try to recycle all the paper and cardboard I can no longer use) I believe that my girlfriend is pretty much the only thing keeping a damper on my pack-rattery. Whether she intends to or not, she's the reason I have everything mostly in this room, and part of my closet. If I lived by myself, I would probably have accumulated enough crap to be able to build entire smaller rooms out of it. I really don't have much of a social life, so it's not as if I'd have much of an excuse to worry about how it looked to anyone else. I would probably not make much of an effort in dating if I weren't in a relationship (that sounds wrong, it's not as if I'm making an effort in dating while in this relationship, either)

There is a clear path from the doorway to my chair here, and I only have to move a few lightweight things to get to the closet in this room, which I keep telling myself if I organized it properly, it could hold much more stuff. THat right there, is my problem. Teh last thing I need is "more stuff" ... what I need to do is figure out how to fit the stuff I already have, in there, to free up more floor and table space in here. If I can keep it contained, keep it under control, things will at least appear 'normal'. That's what counts, right? It doesn't matter what's going on below the surface as long as everything looks right.