Those who’ve lived in their homes for many years probably have boxes filled with forgotten treasures tucked away in seldom-visited nooks and crannies under the stairs, in the basement or in the attic. I know I have. So, for the past few months, I’ve devoted several hours each weekend to unearthing what’s inside my collection of rediscovered boxes.

Several boxes, including one that I most recently came across, are filled with old magazines and newspapers. They must have been significant to me once, right? And, I’ve got to admit — it is fun now to flip through them to reacquaint myself with the “good ol’ days.” But I’m starting to wonder: why did I keep these random periodicals and, perhaps more importantly, why do I not remember keeping them?

Maybe, I’ve decided, I didn’t have time to read all this stuff 15 years ago so I just stuffed them in a box for a “rainy day” that never came. In that decade and a half, my always present “to be read” pile continued to grow, augmented by an exploding email inbox and a soft spot for the latest novels from my go-to favorite authors. I think I’m finally starting to realize that there will never be enough rainy days to read everything that I want to!

So, I’m doing what I should have done years ago. I’m turning back the Time magazines from 2006, tossing turn-of-the-millennium Travel and Leisure magazines and bidding adieu to Peoples from the past. It’s easy to get bogged down with “stuff” — stuff you need to do, stuff you hope to do, stuff that you’ll tackle one of these days when you have time. Well, no more! It’s time to lighten the load so to speak and finally take the trash out!

I’m sure I’ll soon run across a few boxes that will actually be worth unpacking. And once I ditch my preponderance of paper, I may have a place to set some actual keepsakes out and enjoy them!

EMILY SCHILLING is the editor of Indiana Connection