Clump #14:  Clear away another pile of paper.

Miles of piles!  Here is another ugly mess of paper.

Most of it is easy to dispose of, especially when so much is clearly out-of-date.  No Sweat.

But the devil is in the details: the piles within the pile.  This one isn’t too bad: the shred pile.  Easy to spot and eliminate.  More for the recycling bag!

Papers to file.  Some need new file folders.  This Geek Squad contract, upon closer inspection, could be shredded and recycled.  Out of there!

A disk of photos given to me by a friend, stepped on and ruined.  The pile itself is not bad enough, but this adds a soupcon of deeper self-recrimination. How difficult would it be to ask for another copy?  Let’s be reasonable … it’s not the end of the world.

Cards bought, but not sent.  More guilt.  O.K., put those with other cards — at least now they can be found when needed — resolve to send out quickly at the next occasion.

My sentimental streak acts up.  I am not a purist.  A few cards sent to us and some programs from special shows will go into a container in the basement.  When I have cleared all the major clumps from my life (imagine that!) (Please don’t laugh!) I will consider putting them in albums, or finally toss them out.

Then there are little paper clippings.  I cut them out for a reason.  Some can be filed.  Others discarded.  The little ones can be written out or taped in a small notebook I keep for writing down ideas.  Here’s one example: a “miracle fix” for the glass on toaster ovens (and regular ones), is the heavy-duty Mr. Clean Eraser sponge, according to Karen Azriel, who wrote in to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is the book.  It easily fits in my purse.  That’s me in the distance, in my dreams!

Below, a sample page with little pearls of wisdom stuck inside.  From the daily Cryptoquote puzzle:  “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”  –Oscar Wilde   (See unsent greeting cards, above.)

This was a magazine I bought for the article: “America’s Secret Beaches, 25 Secluded Sun Spots,” a USA TODAY magazine, Summer 2012.

If I was to cut out and file the article, it would be six pages.  Instead, I could list the 25 beaches in my notebook, or I could just list them here … and google the name if I happen to be searching out one or another.  Here they are:

1. Gasprilla Island State Park, Little Gasparilla Island, Fla.;  2. Petroglyph Beach, Wrangell, Alaska; 3. Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach, Hana, Hawaii;  4. Headlands Beach State Park, Mentor, Ohio;  5. Rockaway Beach, New York City;  6. Roger Wheeler State Beach, Narragansett, R.I.;  7. Higbee Beach, Cape May, N.J.;  8.  Horseneck Beach, Westport, Mass.;  9.  Playalinda Beach, Titusville, Fla.;  10.  Wrightsville Beach, Wrightsville, Beach, N.C.;  11.  Cape Henlopen State Park, Lewes, Del;  12. Boneyard Beach, Bulls Island, S.C.;  13. Manzanita Beach, Manzanita, Ore.;  14. West Ship Island, Gulfport, Miss.;  15. Jetty Island, Everett, Wash.;  16. Sand Harbor, Incline Village, Nev.;  17. Sand Bar State Park, Milton, VT;  18. Cayo Aurora, Guanica, Puerto Rico;  19. Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Beach, Calif.;  20. First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, VA;  21. Schoolhouse Beach, Washington Island, Wis.;  22. Nanny Goat Beach, Sapelo Island, GA;  23. North Beach, Ponderosa State Park, McCall, Idaho;  24. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Munising, Mich.;  25. Pemaquid Beach Park, Bristol, Maine.

I think this pile is trying to tell me something.  The magazine and the fishing line were together in the stack!  Maybe I should be writing a blog called Beach A Day!

Piles within the pile vanquished!