How Stuff Accumulates

We all accumulate stuff.  Clutter, crap, stuff, treasures, possessions...pick a name but we all have it.  I do my best and go through the stuff and clean off a table, a counter, a shelf.  I give myself a big pat on the back as I head downstairs to put stuff in the trash, recycling bin or donation box.  Then, something simple like a penny gets laid on the newly cleaned off surface.  No big deal, I say.  I'll toss it on the coin jar in a few minutes.

If you are a neat and orderly person, you stop reading here, as the rest of this post will be like a foreign language to you.  None of it will make any sense.  If you are on the more creative side, continue reading.
You may find something familiar here..then again, maybe not.

So, that penny sits there.  You get sidetracked with the cat barfing up the elastic band he ate earlier,  you remember the clean basket of laundry you took upstairs 4 hours ago, a child needs something or spills something, you get a phone call......the penny gets forgotten and you go on about your day.

The next morning, you come downstairs to admire your work of the day before.  The penny is there, along with 3 paper clips, 2 pencils with the erasers broken off, a cup filled with sour milk, a dirty sock, a candy wrapper, 3 matchbox cars, Silly Putty that is NOT in the egg, a toothbrush complete with hard toothpaste on it and a clothes pin.

How in the world did that happen over night?  Not 12 hours ago, that space was pristine, pure, perfect. Now, it is a cluttered, smelly mess (yes, the milk gets spilled because, unbeknownst to you, the glass is firmly stuck in the Silly Putty and when it finally breaks free, the milk goes everywhere) again.  It gets cleaned off again.  You pick up the penny and walk it directly to the change jar and drop it in.  As it clangs against the other coins you wonder.....how in the world does a penny accumulate such random items?

I will never be neat and organized.  I have accepted that about myself.  My friends have accepted that.  Let's face it, come over to my house and you will feel much better about your own housekeeping skills.  But, am I the only one that secretly hopes that some day that penny will grow up into a $20 bill?