When Andy Warhol died 22 years ago, he left behind 610 boxes filled with trash and treasures.  Only 19 have been opened and cataloged.

He had his reasons. He called the boxes time capsules. Some were “collections.” They would be valuable some day, he mused. They reflected the times for history, he said. They … and on and on his reasons supported his obsessions.

But his home became a warehouse. He had to pay for extra storage. All in all he dedicated a great deal of his life to the acquisition of unproductive stuff. Those of us who have walked anywhere close to this way of life ourselves or have watched others know the emptiness of its promises. Wonderful personhood becomes buried under worthless possessions.

Andy Warhol made his choices. Fortunately we can make ours as well, warned by Andy Warhol’s negative example.

 Look, I know that when we live together we all have our workaday jobs that keep the household going. You take out the trash I have contributed to and I cook dinner for us all. That kind of shared work is good.

But when one person makes extra work for another, that’s a big no-no. Like when I have to hunt for the Band-Aids™ while bleeding or the hammer because you have not put it back.

I have two valuables I will not allow to be pilfered away from me — time and energy.  When I have to pick up your dropped towel or clear your plate out of the living room, I use up a little of both. Oh, not very much but day after day it adds up.

My time and energy are the warp and woof of my life. When, like a vampire sipper, you drain my day of both, my life is diminished.

Somewhere in the world there is a list of things that are universally acknowledged as “unfair.” One of the very clear and important ones is this, “One person should not do things that make extra work for somebody else.”

Let’s make a deal.

• If you dirty it yourself, you clean it yourself.

• If you get it out, you put it back where it belongs yourself.

• If you drop it, you pick it up yourself.

• If you mess it up, you straighten it yourself.

I’ll do the same. It’s a deal!