It is driving me insane. I am surrounded by packrats! While I am, myself, far from being an actual minimalist, I do view myself to be more toward the minimalist side of the spectrum. And so the fact that my Boyfriend, my Roomate, and my Roommate's new fiance that is now living with us are all packrats has me constantly gritting my teeth and taking deep, relaxing breaths

All right, so the Boyfriend isn't so bad seeing how I have successfully limited his packratting. But the other two. Oh my!

Roomie's mother recently moved away and thus left various pieces of furniture and other odds and ends behind. Items which my Roomate swooped up happily.

While it is not necessarily a mess in the sense that it is untidy, there is, however, furniture everywhere and things like garish blood red and white "I heart New York" coasters (or coaster looking souvenirs) and other knick knacks that probably has some sort of sentimental value attached but really just takes up space.

Sentimental value... the core of a packrat's mentality.

Well anyway, point is, it is annoying the fuck out of me and this isn't exactly something you can just go up and say "Oh hey, hi, you know that shelf there, yeah, take it away please. I don't like it there."

And so, I have decided that as soon as I find a way to broach the subject, I think I am going to start preparing to move out. Besides, they are a newly-engaged couple. They probably want the space. I know I would

Don't get me wrong, furniture is not the sole reason driving my need to move. Other things like the never ending mountain of dishes is another. Yes, I say mountain because that is indeed what it is. I used to do the dishes on a daily or every-other-day basis but the mountain just kept coming back. I stopped either about the time when they added a new waffle machine to the list of dirty machinery for Sherryl to clean besides the sandwich maker and toaster or when I was thanked for doing dishes. I didn't want to be thanked (even maids get more than a 'thank you'). I wanted them to actually, oh I don't know, do their own dishes?