Perspective

I helped my daughter with her room a bit today (that could be a post itself by the way - let's just say my kids are amazing me lately!). I'm not going to count anything yet because nothing went out the door but among the items we pulled is a stack of 39 Ladybug magazines.

And I started thinking, is this 39 items or 1 set?

A month or so ago on the decluttering board of a mothering site I hang out at someone started a thread wondering how many items a person can have that they can easily find 1,000 to get rid of. She was not being snarky or judgmental, she was just honestly baffled at how this could be (I'm guessing her house is a lot neater than mine ;-)

Before that thread I would have thought that listing each of 39 magazines was artificially inflating my count to make myself look like a better declutterer than I am.

After that thread I wonder if listing it as 1 set (1 item) is artificially minimizing my count to hide the fact that my house is as cluttered as it is.

Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmmmm . . . . ."