Freedom!

My dad once tried to convince me that I should try the one-touch system of handling paper that comes into the house or office.
I had just started my first REAL job as an associate editor at Memphis magazine, and I had accumulated one of those Bermuda Triangle in-boxes where I deposited stuff that wasn't due immediately but that I wanted to peruse "later."
Of course, "later" never arrived.
"The one-touch system. You should try it," my dad advised. "When you get some mail or a memo, you pick it up and decide right then and there whether you're going to act on it, file it or throw it away."
Sounds simple enough, of course, but I am a hoarder at heart.
My in-box never was empty until I left the job and moved to Nashville.
In my 19 years of being a married person and/or mom, I have never been able to adopt the one-touch system. I have what the Fly Lady calls "hot spots" all around my house. You know what a hot spot is: Those not-so-out-of-the-way places on desks or counters where you stash mail that you can't deal with right then but plan to get to "later."
There's that word again.
Recently, I started collecting a small pile of catalogs that I thought I'd want to look through LATER for Christmas gift ideas. I have pretty good luck finding stuff that way for my hard-to-buy-for loved ones.
The pile next to my chair became unwieldy, so I started another "to read" pile on the kitchen counter next to the coffee pot.
Pretty soon I kept having to move the kitchen pile when I would cook or bring in a load of groceries.
Yesterday I finally got tired of moving the pile, so I did something outrageous.
I threw the whole pile away.
Yep, I just tossed an entire stack of unread catalogs in the trash!
I haven't felt that free in years.