ABSTRACT
Jane’s house has a double personality. In the front rooms of thehouse, where guests and friends visit, it is neat and well organized. But the rear rooms of the house, which nobody sees, are cluttered with things-all kinds of things. “I love to entertain and have people stay over, but I abandoned that idea years ago when the guest bedroom became a catchall for the overflow from my own bedroom,” said Jane. The dresser in the guest bedroom is covered with perfume bottles, unmatched earrings, pens, small batteries, little ceramic figurines, and the ubiquitous loose change. The night tables overflow with magazines, tissue boxes, tape dispensers, and more loose change. The bed itself, though made up, is strewn with clothes. Clumps of shoes and handbags sit on the floor, together with an array of shopping and gift bags, some containing items to return to the store. Pictures to be framed are crowded under the bed. The closets are crammed and the dresser drawers overstuffed.
