Clutter

I Would Throw That Thing Out, But What If I Need It For the Apocalypse?

And other lies I tell myself

The handle to a brass mallet, a doll’s leg that might go to a doll I might still have, a key that might be important, half an Easter egg I might later find the other half to, and other stuff that I can’t identify but might be important. Don’t worry, I’m suitably ashamed of myself for having this stuff. Photo by Michelle Teheux

My granddaughter lost our TV remote.

“It’ll turn up,” I said.

That was about two years ago. It has never turned up.

To this day, my husband has to walk over to the TV to do certain things to it — I’ve never understood why one TV needs two remotes so don’t ask me for further details.

Remotes are like socks here.

I don’t know what it is about remotes, but at my house, they are as likely to get lost as socks and Tupperware lids. That’s despite the fact that we only have one TV. I can’t imagine the disasters we’d face if we had more than one.

My grandson lost the other remote when he was about 3. I called my daughter’s house and asked my grandson where it was.

“It’s in my office,” he replied.

We hadn’t known our grandson had an office, but we took that clue and ran with it.

We searched my desk and my husband’s desk.

We searched the tiny child-sized roll-top desk that had been my mother’s.