A short while back, convinced that the stuff in our storage closet was reproducing, I resolved to clean out the storage babies and donate the clutter to someone who might find it useful. And I did start this process but things managed to pile up again, confirming my suspicions that the stuff in storage has reproductive capabilities similar to rats or rabbits. It’s taken A. and I until this weekend to really make a dent in the madness and it’s going to be another few days until we finish. But we’re close and I’ll be oh so happy when it’s done.

As part of this de-clutter the storage closet effort, I brought a bunch of the junk boxes upstairs to our dining area and saw one marked ‘Manuals’. It was bursting at the seams. This is unsurprising – I’m desperately afraid of throwing out manuals. I don’t know what I think is going to change about the item in question. I mean, what new features can I possibly discover on our iron? Or what new moves can our blender perform that I haven’t already figured out? And it’s not like there is a ton of troubleshooting that can be done if, say, the toaster stops working. My toaster manual isn’t going to tell me to reboot the toaster or try some jazzy new way of pushing down the toast in order to get it to work.

Today’s simple resolution: sort through manuals, how-to guides, start-up CDs, warranty slips and the like and recycle the ones we just don’t need. One of the CDs we pulled out didn’t appear to do anything so we’ve tossed it. Of course you know what will happen – two years from now I’ll be blogging about the fact that we can’t get our fridge to work and we’re missing the start-up disc or something and someone will reference this post and I’ll curse loudly. It’s risky business, this resolution. But it must be done – surely we do not need an entire apple box full of manuals.

Update on previous resolutions: magazine resolution? Resounding success. Only the Vogues and the most recent Shape remain. And I’m going to stop buying Shape. I only get it for the success stories and apparently those are online! Excellent.

Update on manual situation: the manual box has been reduced to a shoe box. Hoorah! Only start-up discs and a couple of important manuals – for the TV that I still haven’t figured out how to work in full and for the computer-y stuff because of the troubleshooting tips that I likely won’t try before screaming at the computer-y item in question and tossing it out a window.