Ross: All right, Monica categorizes her towels. How many categories are there?
Joey: Everyday use.
Chandler: Fancy.
Joey: Guest.
Chandler: Fancy guest.
Ross: Two seconds...
Joey: Uh, eleven!
Ross: 11. Unbelievable. 11 is correct.
Reducing the count of towel categories in the Kartchner household, is one of my many 2010 resolutions. You see, since the day we were married, at least one towel bar in every bathroom has been reserved for the "fancy" category of towels. This year marks our 10th wedding anniversary, and we have been using the same towels we were gifted on that joyous occasion ever since. Meanwhile, the "guest", "fancy guest" and "decorative" towels have remained untouched by anyone in the family, regardless of how thread barren, rough and sometimes smelly our own towels have become. We have added towel bars, towel racks and/or hooks to every bathroom, in every house we have ever lived in, to accommodate this ridiculous indulgence of mine-decorative towels with no particular function.
Matt and I chose not to give Christmas gifts to each other for the first time this year. Instead, we reserved our modest budget for the day after Christmas sales. We got a babysitter and braved the mall with one objective-new towels! Not just any towels-soft bath sheets with a high thread count. Mission accomplished! Our new plain and white, yet soft and comfortable towels, reside with the once "fancy" towels in our linen closet. Our old towels have respectfully been retired, and all towels are now candidates when any Kartchner body part needs to be dried! Our household now boasts only two categories of towels-clean and dirty! To many it may seem petty (as well as this post!), but for me it represents a larger aspiration of living a simpler life. I hope that this small change will be the catalyst behind many more important choices to live a leaner, yet more fulfilling life in 2010.
