No New Year resolutions here.
I gave up resolutions long ago, but there are plenty of personal and professional promises to keep in 2024, starting with cleaning out the bedroom closets that have been calling out for attention for going on what seems forever.
Talk about clutter. Clutter is not the word.
You can only hang on to those aging slacks and shirts and suits for so long. And then there’s my late mother’s closet, too, the one with her suits and dresses and blouses and pocketbooks and bedroom shoes and whatnot.
“We’ll be happy to have your old clothes,” the fellow at the Goodwill donation center on Raeford Road told me back in early fall. “Just bring whatever you have, and we’ll even help you get it out of your car. Just bring what you have.”
I was doing OK with my own closet, until dropping 30 pounds in late 2022. You lose 30 pounds, and your waistline will shrink. Your shirt neck size, too. Next thing you know, and your suits and slacks and shirts look like you’re wearing feed bags. You’ll spend a small fortune replenishing your wardrobe. You hang on to the oversized clothing for fear of relapsing on the weight loss. Call it something of a Catch-22, but suffice it to say, if you remain disciplined on monitoring your new waistline, you’ll find yourself with a closet and nowhere to hang anything.
It’s a job, but I’m heading Goodwill’s way.
But wait …
There’s the four-tiered filing cabinet in the den that’s calling, too. Every drawer is chocked full of what you might call “stuff.” And there’s the secretary in the front bedroom with four drawers full of more “stuff.” Rubbermaid containers here and Rubbermaid containers there and all filled with more “stuff.” Everywhere I look, there’s something full of “stuff.”
But wait.
There’s more “stuff.”
There’s the old RCA television console in the den that’s been there since the 1960s that I tried to get rid of long ago.
“But that’s a nice piece of furniture,” Mama — a pack rat, bless her heart, if ever there was — would forbid some 25 years ago.
I was telling the Spectrum repairman not all that long ago about how I was planning to get rid of the old RCA console TV.
“Well, you can do that,” he said. “But that’s a nice piece of furniture.”
I mentioned the old radio and record console player in the den.
“That’s a nice piece of furniture, too,” he said.
May be heading to the Re-Store Warehouse just up the way from my home.
There are the shelves in the storage room off the den. There’s “stuff” in the attic, where there’s no telling what’s up there.
And then there’s my secretary in the narthex, where it’s inundated with documents that I use for my CityView Today work, letters from CityView Today readers and just about anything and everything pertaining to daily CityView Today reporting.
The news never sleeps.
The documents just keep coming one after another. When you report the news, you never know when you’ll need to consult a previous document for background. It’s the nature of the business, and you wind up with more “stuff.”
Epilogue
Clearly, as you may see, there’s something of a daunting task ahead for Bill, and I didn’t mention the new kitchen countertop or ripping out the old living room and hallway carpet that’s time has come. But it’s coming for sure.
Some may call them New Year resolutions.
For Bill, just things that need to be done in 2024, and the sooner the better. I’ve got a lot of “stuff” calling my name.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
