cant...keep....treading.....water.....going.....down

I can barely breathe sometimes when I look around my house. In a matter of an hour, literally, our house can explode.

I am in a continual state of picking up and cleaning. It doesn't end, especially with the kids. But, I am not talking about their clutter right now. At least we have a place for their clutter, I know where to put the toys away.

I am just talking about the adult clutter. We try desperately to keep on top of it; throwing away junk mail as it comes into our house, having a place for everything, using the "one touch rule", donating regularly. But still, even with all of that effort, we just have lots of STUFF. It is this STUFF that makes me feel like I am drowning.

Today, I started going around the house, doing the usual de-junk process. As I am in the middle of this process, the doorbell rings. I go to see who it is, and there is bag hanging on our door handle. Inside this bag is... junk. Someone has just hand delivered a bag of junk to my door. Literally. The Chesapeake Health Department has given me

1. One plastic bag
2. A newspaper telling me that "Anthrax has been distributed in the air throughout the Hampton Roads Area." All over this paper is written "This is only an exercise - There is no emergency"
3. A "Mass Antibiotic Distribution Drill" paper telling me that there is no emergency and no threat to Chesapeake.
4. Another "Sample emergency medical information sheet" paper saying this is only a drill and that I don't need to do anything
5. Four empty pill bottles for the emergency that is not occurring.

Seriously. I just got hand delivered more stuff that I am told I do not need. I can't imagine how much this cost Chesapeake to deliver these to each person. Did we really need a trial run, or could we have just gotten a note telling us what WOULD happen if there really was an emergency? Or better yet, just wait until there actually was an emergency and then sent me this package.

What am I supposed to do with this stuff? Save it for future reference? Throw it away?

*sigh*

If I don't post for a while, it is because I am lost under the useless, unnecessary junk in my home.