I think this year is one of the best years to pick up watching Oprah (unless you are already a die-hard fan of course). This year she has vowed to inspire audiences around the world to “Live Your Best Life”, and the shows are definitely worth the watch. Yesterday’s show on decluttering your life was so great because it helped me communicate to Alex why he and I differ so much in terms of clutter control. He is a pack rat and is able to “see past the clutter” (as Oprah’s guest expert Peter Walsh calls it) while I on the other hand see everything in little piles around the house as clutter (e.g. including the empty HDTV receiver/antennae boxes perched on top of our TV –for about 2 years now– in the family room). I’m really big on throwing things out and donating/giving away things that I don’t need or just got bored of, but since that’s a big no-no according to Alex, I do feel weighed down by all the excess stuff that I feel doesn’t belong in our house anymore. Alex has a gazillion reasons for not donating stuff (e.g. we already have enough stuff to donate this year so why don’t we save the rest of our donation stuff for next year to claim? Urgh!!! Imagine my horror when Alex took in more bags of his parents clothing for donation in 2006… because this meant I’ll have to hoard our stuff another year to allign with Alex’s tax schedule. I’ve even made spontaneous GoodWill donation runs in the past without Alex’s knowledge just to get rid of the stuff that I just cannot stand seeing anymore. Honestly, I could care less about the tax advantage. To me, having a clean/uncluttered home (especially ridding ourselves of those hideously disorganized closets and cabinets) is a soul lifter. You won’t believe how many times those bags I placed into the garage made itself back into the house. I think this show finally shed some light on my perspective of things (I am definitely not erasing this episode from my Tivo box). How helpful that is in turning our house into the home I want to live in remains to be seen, but at the least I have to give a big thank you to Oprah for bringing to the forefront one of the biggest pet peeve in my life to address.