by Jane E. Brody

It often takes a crisis， major or minor， to prompt people to change bad habits， especially when the change is time-consuming and anxietyprovoking.

The other day， the drawer in which I store my swimming stuff jammed. When I finally got it open and dumped out its contents， I counted more than a dozen bathing suits （several with their store tags 1）intact）， 12 bathing caps， 10 pairs of 2）goggles and countless nose clips and earplugs.

Then I recalled the same thing had happened a week earlier with my drawer of pens and pencils， literally hundreds of them， half of which were dried out or otherwise useless.

往往要有一场或轻或重的危机，才能逼迫人们改掉恶习，当改变这些习惯需时耗日、令人焦虑不安时，情况尤其如此。

前几天，我用来放游泳装备的抽屉挤满东西，给卡住了。最终把它打开时，我把里面东西都倒了出来，数了一下：一共有十几套泳衣（有几件连标签牌都还完好无损）、12个泳帽、10副泳镜以及无数的鼻夹和耳塞。

这时，我想起一周前也发生过类似的事情。当时，我打开用来放钢笔和铅笔的抽屉，里面有几百支笔，其中有一半不是墨水已经干尽就是已经坏掉了。

And I shouldnt even mention my full-size freezer or 3）humongous medicine cabinet， where things fall out every time I open them. Or my floor-to-ceiling plastic bins of yarn， mountainhigh pile of Bubble Wrap， bags of plastic bags and shopping bags， and shelves of items I thought might be gifts for someone someday.

Having just read 4）Homer & Langley， E. L. Doctorows novel about the Collyer brothers， who were found dead in a Harlem brownstone under more than 100 tons of stuff they had accumulated， I finally vowed to tackle my lifelong tendency to accumulate too much of nearly everything and my seeming inability to throw out anything that I considered potentially useful to me or someone else sometime in the future.

Living in a three-story house with full basement made it far too easy to pursue this habit. I had plenty of storage space （and had filled every 5）nook and 6）cranny of it）， but often couldnt find things when I needed them， including clothes， books， articles， even frozen food I knew I had stored somewhere. Last year I found eight unopened jars of cocktail sauce in the back of my fridge； I had forgotten I had any and kept buying more.

我家那大冰箱和硕大无比的药箱就更别提了，每次打开，总会有一堆东西掉出来。我也不该说起那些装满了纱线的塑料储物箱，已经从地板一直堆到天花板了，泡泡包装纸堆积如山，还有数不胜数的塑料袋和购物袋，以及摆满几个货架的各式物件，上面的东西我总觉得有朝一日或许能作为礼物送给别人。

最近我刚刚读了E·L·多克托罗的小说《纽约兄弟》，书中讲的是科利尔兄弟的故事，这哥俩住在哈林区一幢赤褐色砂石小楼里，两人去世时，家里囤积了超过100吨的杂物。读完小说，我终于发誓要改变长期以来的习惯，改掉几乎任何物品都攒下来、什么都不舍得扔的老毛病——在潜意识里，我总觉得这些东西今后总能对我或别人派上用场。

住在一幢楼高三层、外加一个大地下室的房子里，养成囤积的恶习实在太容易了。我有充足的储藏空间（而且现在已经把所有角落都填满了），但在有需要的时候，我却总是找不到要找的东西，无论是衣服、书、日用品，还是那些我明明知道放在了某个地方的冷冻食品。……