Let’s face it as we all try and “turn over a new leaf” for the New Year, the truth of the matter is that we all have accumulated way too much “stuff.” Have you ever gone into the kitchen of an unrenovated farmhouse? The cabinets are tiny because those folks kept on hand only what was necessary to their day to day lives.

In contrast this columnist is currently in possession of fourteen huge plastic bins of Christmas ornaments (sorted by color and category mind you.) This, of course is in addition to bins for an extensive variety of tree lights, other bins for every sort of extension cords and eight different wreaths.

Yes, it’s a definite problem considering the holiday season is about a month in duration and all the bins take up a lot of space in my garage.

A famous woman in Japan, Marie Kondo is now known as a worldwide expert for her methods (KonMari) for organizing our things and our homes and getting rid of all our unnecessary junk.

According to Ms. Kondo by throwing out things we remind ourselves that mementos are not memories and buy tossing extraneous stuff that has already served its purpose we free ourselves of the burden they cause in our lives.

As always you can believe the Sunshine Hall Free Library is on point with this issue. On Wednesday, January 5th the Library will be sponsoring a free online webinar presented by Shannon Honeycutt a certified silver level KonMari consultant.

You will learn the Life-changing magic of tidying up. The silver level designation means that Marie Kondo, the creator of the KonMari Method personally trained Ms. Honeycutt. The event is sponsored by the Sunshine Hall Free Library and four other Ramapo Catskill Library System libraries. Registration is required and attendance is limited. To register go to sunshinehallfreelibrary.org.

According to Ms. Kondo “by discarding what doesn’t spark joy, we free up space to reflect more deeply on our past experiences and how they prepared us for whatever comes next.” I have registered for the webinar as I am not so sure that having fourteen bins of ornaments necessarily sparks “joy” for me!

On February 14, 2022, professional baseball’s pitchers, and catchers report for Spring training-a mere six weeks from now. On the local level it is definitely time to think about enrolling the kiddos in the Eldred Little League.

Registration is now open until February 14th. Tee-ball is $85.00 per child. Coach, pitch, minor and major is $115.00 per child and there is a family maximum of $200. There are some reduced registration fees available due to financial hardship situations.

An absolute requirement to register is a copy of every child’s birth certificate and there is no exceptions to this requirement. The Little League suggests uploading the birth certificates when registering. These birth certificates are destroyed at the end of each season and not returned. There is also a $75.00 Work Bond per child and go to Little League’s Facebook page for more details on how that works.

To register go to www.eldredlittleleague.org or email eldredlittleleague@ gmail.com or call John Tice, the Little League President at (845) 701-3614.