Do people named I Don’t Know and Not Me leave clothes at your house, too?
– Putting away the laundry consists of asking everyone in the household, repeatedly, to go through the clean clothes and put away what is theirs. This is followed by going through what is left, piece by piece and asking everyone in the house if it belongs to them until the owner finally has a moment of recognition. Today, there was stuff leftover that no one would claim. It went into the DI pile so that we don’t have to play that game with that particular piece of clothing again.
Does anyone need this many purple mechanical pencils?
– This is what happens when I constantly lose things. I replace them or buy more in case I lose them again. Then, at some point, all of them get found and I have way more than I ever thought possible. I don’t know how many pairs of sunglasses I have in the house. Yes, most of those are purple too.

Does anyone need this many cute little notebooks?

– These things are very handy for recording what yarn, needles size, or whatever I’ve done with a pattern. It’s a great idea when you sort of use a pattern but then change a thing or two here and there. Trust me, you won’t remember what you’ve done. Write it down. I wish I listened to myself more.
Flexible rulers, same question
– I blame my knitting instructor, Bonnie, for this one. I took a knitting class from her, oh so many years ago, probably some time in 2003. She gave one out to each person in the knitting class and I promptly lost mine. Either that or I didn’t get a purple one because another student grabbed it. So, I bought another one. Then, for whatever reason, I kept buying them because I thought they were cool. Look, there is even a non-purple one 🙂 You know, I miss that group of ladies in that knitting class, I wish I had gone more often and kept in touch with them. It was my first real knit night.

Since I found probably all of my purple mechanical pencils, flexible rulers and cute little notebooks, does that also mean I will find the rest of my tape measures?
– Would you believe I actually found one of the missing tape measures (and another purple mechanical pencil) in between starting this post and dinner time?
Can one person really have too many sticky notes?

Can I blame my collection of needlework scissors on any of the above?
– No, unfortunately not. When I was an avid cross stitcher, I detested having to track down my one pair of scissors so I began acquiring scissors for every major project I started. I kept a pair in each floss box. Later I gathered them all up and began distributing them amongst my knitting bags.

Are the questions all going to be related to how much I have of a certain item?
– Yep. Except for the question about the strangers that come to my house and leave clothes in the laundry hamper.
All of the above items I find useful for taking notes, marking patterns and knitting in general. Except for the pile of unclaimed clothes that is shortly going to be dispatched to DI. Yay! More room for stash! Um, did I say that out loud?
Can I think of anything else knitting or office supply related that I seem to have a lot of?
– Oh my giddy aunt, yes. While writing all of this I discovered (or rediscovered) that I have a large amount of a lot of things. I went about sorting and organizing the various drawers, cubbies, and boxes of stuff, which led to me finding more stuff and needing to take updated pictures since the piles kept getting larger and larger. I started to wonder just how much of this stuff I really had. I went through the house and gathered up all the pens and pencils and pretty much decided that if the world were to end tomorrow I would have many years worth of writing implements. I also have a lot of notebooks and packages of paper to use the pens and pencils on. I have a lot of knitting supplies. I tend to work on several projects at once and each project lives in its own bag. I like each bag to have its own supply of tools. Now, I wish I was really as organized as this makes me sound but I tend to not put things back where they came from so I have to rummage somewhere else to find a pair of scissors, some stitch markers or a measuring tape. Every so often, I have to gather up all the stuff, and put them in piles and then redistribute them among my knitting bags.
Is it time for another declutter session?
I’m afraid so and time for another commitment to myself not to purchase more stuff. Except yarn. Having stuff can be nice, but having too much stuff can be stressful. Where do you put it all? How do you keep a room looking tidy? How do you keep your space functional? For heavens sake, what do you do when you have to move? I seem to have accumulated more stash than I intended and while I was acquiring that stash I bought only small amounts. I have LOTS of sock yarn and a lot of stash for scarves and shawls. I want to make some blankets and sweaters but I don’t want to buy that much more yarn while I have so much of it here. I’m running out of room. I’m going to have to try to be patient and finish the few acrylic (sigh) afghans that I have going before I can justify bringing home that much more. I might need a Jane Austen movie marathon to get more things knitted.
Because you know, knitting (especially an afghan) uses up yarn = frees up space = decluttering!