Things I Threw Away and Why I Suck

I have a sort of song stuck in my head all about cleaning which goes to the tune of The Beatles "Things We Said Today".  Not sure of the words but the chorus includes "Things I Threw Away".

I got rid of some makeup this week.  It was one of those 80-color eye shadow gift palettes.  I can count on one hand, the amount of times I wore eye shadow in the last year.  But that wasn't really what motivated me to toss it.  No, I've had this particular eye shadow long enough to have the little sponges on the applicators decay and fall apart.  I figure if I've had it that long, it's probably a bio hazard at this point.  Maybe not something I want near my eyes.

The other thing I got rid of was books (two boxes worth, thank you very much).  Anyone who knows me, knows that purging books is especially difficult for me.  Like the alcoholic who has bottle stashed around the house, I have piles and piles of books I intend to read some day.  Piles because they're overflowing out of bookcases, even though they're already over stacked and randomly, haphazardly jammed into those bookcases to begin with.

I love to read but the truth is that I only have so many hours in a day.  And there are some books I'm never going to re-read or read at all.  Impulsive purchases at library book sales often lose their luster after sitting in a pile for three years.  Among books I donated, were one on building tree houses (wishful thinking on my part, as if purchasing the book might suddenly make me develop carpentry skills.)  I also had a play entitled "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom."  Don't know if the title actually reflected the content.  I didn't read it and can't remember why I bought it (or frankly buying it at all). Yet regardless of the titles, getting rid of books is painful.

On an unrelated to books but somewhat related to clutter, I suck. Over the holidays, my husband and I saw an inordinate amount of people drinking mimosas on TV.  It was like every program we saw had people drinking mimosas. The idea of mimosas lodged itself in my brain even though I'd never craved them before.  I went to the liquor store and bought some very cheap champagne. 

 I have champagne flutes which I either purchased myself just before I got married or received as a wedding present.  Their true origin is obscured in the sands of time like Stonehenge or something.  Suffice to say, I've owned these champagne flutes for AT LEAST 21 years.  They were dusty, which I expected but worse, they still had stickers on them from the manufacturer. (I'm sure that truly excellent champagne flutes don't have stickers at all but that's completely beside the point.)

This begs two questions: 1) In 21 (or more) years, I couldn't find anything worth digging these out for?  Graduations?  Birth of children?  New jobs? Now, granted, I'm not a big champagne drinker and certainly one could celebrate sans alcohol but what was I saving them for?  The apocalypse?  Winning the lottery?  Moving out of my house and into a nursing home at age 90?  I don't know which poses the second question and that is, Why did I hang onto something I NEVER have used in 21 (plus) years?!?!