Monday Moment #67: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my character(s) better just by answering the question. I hope you do too. )

Pack rat or pitch-it person?

Call me Miss Pitch-it. I love to get rid of stuff. But, some how it seems that you marry your opposite. My husband is most certainly a pack rat. Not only that, but one of my girls (the most artistic of the two) is even worse than her dad. She finds value in everything. Any wrapper or box or doodad has potential to become something wonderful, and she usually makes it so.

Even though I'm the pitch-it type, I do still have "those" kinds of drawers and closets. You know, the ones that need to be cleaned and organized. This past week I got a bit of an organizing bug and cleaned out my nightstand's three drawers and my closet which also has an area with more storage drawers and shelves for things non-clothes related. Basically, a mess!

If you've moved at all in recent memory, you know how it is when you just need to get things put away, so you shove them in drawers and think, I'll change/organize that later. Well, this was later for me...three years later. Hello! I had a ton of stuff to pitch and it felt great. GREAT!!!

The fun part was coming across the non-pitch items, like photos and many cards and letters my hubby has given me over the course of our 18 year relationship, like this handmade Valentine (from forever ago)...

This was a FIND. Do you see that bottom *!?! It states: Use of coupon endless! Woot-woot! As I flaunted it to him later, he kept saying, "I must have put fine print in there somewhere." So, I took a closer look. AND SURE ENOUGH, HE DID. You probably can't see it, but it says, "Or until practitioner takes away!" So, I'm now hiding this lovely find to pull when needed.

My pitch-it session inspired him to do a little of his own...I'd like to say pitching, but for him, it was more like reorganizing. And what was one thing his finds? A Greyhound bus ticket to Chelan, WA from 1987. There was nothing special about this trip, no sentimental reason to keep the ticket. He actually said, "I don't know why I kept this (for 23 years!)." But here's the million dollar question: Did he then throw it out? NO. His thought? He'd kept it that long, why toss it now? *wife hits head* Help me!

Is your character a pack rat or pitch-it person? And, what have they come across something they'd forgotten about?