Today, I just have a simple musing brought to you by Adam Carolla. It’s no secret that the hubs and I are big fans of Ace, and recently on his podcast he was talking about how in your home, when you don’t deal with little things, they become scenery and you no longer recognize them as something out of place. As an example, he was talking about how his wife put a button that fell off their son’s bathing suit into a bowl because she was going to sew it back on. Well, smash-cut to 5 months later and the button is still there, and nothing has been done with it. The button became part of the home’s scenery and no longer acted as a reminder to fix the bathing suit. It blended it. One thing is no big deal, but when many tiny, out-of-place things get strewn around it starts to just nag at your psyche. At least it does for me.

The whole thing got me thinking of things in our home that are ‘scenery’ – the little things I’ve been meaning to deal with, but just haven’t and now I kind of accept them as part of the homeostasis. They no longer warrant action because I’ve accepted them as they are. Sounds deeper than I mean it to be . Here are a few things in our apartment that have become ‘scenery.’ (Admittedly, with this idea in my head during the  recent yard sale clean out, I made a concerted effort to get rid of most stuff that had become scenery. Including the tire gauge that had sat by the door since whoknowswhen.)

Bear’s statue of liberty hat. That has been sitting on his head since the day we got it back in May. Don’t get my wrong, I think it looks adorable, but it was never intended to live on his head for so long.

Rippled piece of stone. Used it at the wedding. Placed it there when we got back. Hasn’t moved since.

‘R’ towel hook. Bought that over a year ago, hung it on that tack, which was already on the wall, hasn’t moved since. I’m embarrassed. (Btw, you can peep the winter crop seedlings on that shelf in the bathroom!)

And the butternut squash in the bowl. Yep, the squash has become scenery. It’s been in the wooden bowl there since last October? Maybe September? Can’t be sure at this point. I haven’t even made a move to cook it. I know.

There were a lot of other tiny things around before The Great Clean Out and Organization of 2012, such as the aforementioned tire gauge, a few buttons, stacked magazines, and some purses laying in my closet that I had been meaning to clean since April. It really is amazing how little time it took to deal with all that little stuff, and how great mental reward of having it gone is. And yet, it took me forever to get up and do it. There’s a chemistry activation energy analogy in there somewhere, but I’m sure you get my drift. So, do you have any stuff that has become ‘scenery’ in your home?

(Btw, Ace has a new book out and it is HILARIOUS. I highly recommend it! Here’s the link: Not Taco Bell Material.)