Over the years we have owned several types of tables. We’ve had coffee tables, dining room tables, end tables, and entryway tables. Over the past couple of years we’ve added a new table to our home: the Amazon Table.

The Amazon Table sits about a foot away from the front door and has become the first stop for all Amazon packages. Even though we feel relatively safe living near the end of a cul-de-sac in a gated community, it’s still not a great idea to leave Amazon packages sitting outside on the front porch for days at a time. There was a time when having a package arrive was a novel event. Whenever a box would arrive, someone living in the home would retrieve the package (maybe even sign for it!), read the mailing label, and hand the package to whomever it was addressed. Those were the good ‘ol days, back before we had four people ordering things from Amazon. These days, Amazon packages arrive multiple days each week. Throw in the occasional delivery from FedEx, UPS, and USPS, and I’m guessing a box appears on our porch 4-5 times a week — definitely more days than not. With that many packages arriving, when a box shows up it is no longer like Christmas. When a box shows up it is like a box showed up. Someone picks up the box and moves it inside to the table, where other people will check to see if a box with their name on it has arrived.

And while it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, there is a second, related area out in the workshop — the “unopened Amazon package pile.” Out in the workshop there are a few — not a lot, maybe half a dozen or so — unopened Amazon packages. They’re things I’ve purchased for future projects that I don’t currently have a use for, and so they’re all sitting together in a pile. In the pile are a set of casters for a workbench I’ve yet to build, a small Bluetooth receiver/amplifier for a building project, and a couple of tools I’ll eventually need for my van project, but haven’t needed yet.

And yes, I’m aware this sounds like the introduction to an episode of Hoarders.