I took Thursday and Friday off work to sort and either pack up or throw out a bunch of stuff in preparation for moving. We don't have this house on the market yet but a couple of rooms need to be painted and at least one needs recarpeting, so I'm packing and clearing to get all the stuff out of the way so these improvements can be done. I've packed up loads of books and have tons more to go. I ought to have continued with the task today but so far, I've emptied the dishwasher, changed the litter box, gone grocery shopping and baked a dessert for my sweetheart; that may be the extent of my Saturday energy.
During the cleanup, I've been amazed at the stuff that I'd forgotten that I owned. Why on earth Marcel Proust is on my bookshelf is less of a concern than whether his neurotic, whiny, hypochondriacal self tainted any of the surrounding novels. He was bracketed on the left by Edgar Allan Poe so I feel pretty good about that, but on the right by François Rabelais so I'm a little worried about that side - it's not like I can count on Ayn Rand to handle the overspill of excessive verbosity. It might trickle all the way down to Tom Robbins. I hope Jitterbug Perfume is okay; that's one of my all-time favorite books.
I don't think of myself as a pack-rat: I throw away newspapers and magazines once read, I regularly take clothes to Goodwill, etc. I honestly hate clutter and don't like the extent to which it has surrounded me. However, I do have a tendancy to save things that might be useful someday, to someone, as long as I have available space to stick them out of the way. So, in the closet in the spare bedroom I found three (3!) electric blankets that no longer heat, but which I saved because the blanket part still works even if the heating element doesn't. Of course, in the last 8 years or so, I've never used them because why would you want a blankie full of stiff, poky wires (which don't heat up) when you can have a soft, crocheted blanket or a handmade quilt? I've found the original box for my PlayStation, the original box for my PS2, the box for my motorcycle helmet, the box in which my Jimmy Page signature Les Paul was shipped to Guitar Center - why are these necessary in life? I don't know, so I tossed them. Later, I will find out that someone was willing to pay me $800 for my non-functional PlayStation if only I had the original packaging...
I'm sure that I'll regret having thrown out some of the stuff I did, but when in doubt, I chose to err on the side of less clutter. One thing I unearthed which is not getting tossed, because it's too damn funny: my grey Members Only jacket. Seriously, when were those cool? 1982? 1983? I could have sworn I had a burgundy one, too, but I didn't find that. Or my black metal-studded hip belt from Merry Go Round. If my readers are willing to pay me enough money (pledge to e-mail address at right) I'll actually wear it out in public somewhere. And hum Sister Christian.
That does make me kinda sad about all the crap I did toss: I'm sure that at some point in the future, it would have made me laugh so hard to come across them. I was going to toss this bit of computer nostalgia, but I set it aside to first show to Alan and my computer-geek darling wants to keep it. Fine, it is pretty funny. Remember when your computer ran on DOS? Remember when computer disks were 5.25" floppies? Remember when DOS came on two of 'em?
During the cleanup, I've been amazed at the stuff that I'd forgotten that I owned. Why on earth Marcel Proust is on my bookshelf is less of a concern than whether his neurotic, whiny, hypochondriacal self tainted any of the surrounding novels. He was bracketed on the left by Edgar Allan Poe so I feel pretty good about that, but on the right by François Rabelais so I'm a little worried about that side - it's not like I can count on Ayn Rand to handle the overspill of excessive verbosity. It might trickle all the way down to Tom Robbins. I hope Jitterbug Perfume is okay; that's one of my all-time favorite books.
I don't think of myself as a pack-rat: I throw away newspapers and magazines once read, I regularly take clothes to Goodwill, etc. I honestly hate clutter and don't like the extent to which it has surrounded me. However, I do have a tendancy to save things that might be useful someday, to someone, as long as I have available space to stick them out of the way. So, in the closet in the spare bedroom I found three (3!) electric blankets that no longer heat, but which I saved because the blanket part still works even if the heating element doesn't. Of course, in the last 8 years or so, I've never used them because why would you want a blankie full of stiff, poky wires (which don't heat up) when you can have a soft, crocheted blanket or a handmade quilt? I've found the original box for my PlayStation, the original box for my PS2, the box for my motorcycle helmet, the box in which my Jimmy Page signature Les Paul was shipped to Guitar Center - why are these necessary in life? I don't know, so I tossed them. Later, I will find out that someone was willing to pay me $800 for my non-functional PlayStation if only I had the original packaging...
I'm sure that I'll regret having thrown out some of the stuff I did, but when in doubt, I chose to err on the side of less clutter. One thing I unearthed which is not getting tossed, because it's too damn funny: my grey Members Only jacket. Seriously, when were those cool? 1982? 1983? I could have sworn I had a burgundy one, too, but I didn't find that. Or my black metal-studded hip belt from Merry Go Round. If my readers are willing to pay me enough money (pledge to e-mail address at right) I'll actually wear it out in public somewhere. And hum Sister Christian.
That does make me kinda sad about all the crap I did toss: I'm sure that at some point in the future, it would have made me laugh so hard to come across them. I was going to toss this bit of computer nostalgia, but I set it aside to first show to Alan and my computer-geek darling wants to keep it. Fine, it is pretty funny. Remember when your computer ran on DOS? Remember when computer disks were 5.25" floppies? Remember when DOS came on two of 'em?
3 Comments:
We had to throw many, many items out when we were moving. Some of them we may come to miss. We threw out several packaging boxes
We still haven't found everything that I had thought we were bringing, yet. I think at the very end we may have gotten over-enthusiastic and thrown out some pots and pans I wanted to bring.
-Sarah
By
Anonymous, at 5:54 PM
Alan looks so handsome! Love the tie!
mom
By
Anonymous, at 2:27 PM
Mom? Where's my burgundy Members Only jacket??? And my white Gucci loafers?
By
Helly, at 4:45 PM
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