September 8, 2008

Episode #006 - "Junk...Part 2"

Junk…Part 2
I mentioned previously that my dad is a pack rat. Fits the profile, depression child, poor family. Well, it is in my genes too. Not the profile, just the genes. Can’t help it. Like my brown hair and brown eyes, I got that gene. My genetic disposition is not so advanced but it’s there.

My garage is full. Most of the things not useful, at least in their present condition. I have good intentions at heart, just never seem to be able too pull it out. I wanted those flower pots for a deck garden. Sure, I’ll refurbish those bird feeders, I like the birds. Of course we need that scrap wood. Who knows what I can build, or fix, or maintain. Maybe a bird house. Maybe a flower box. That old dorm fridge would make a great wine cooler. I can get that weed whacker fixed. Those wind chimes just need a bit of attention. We might be able to use that pipe someday.

Our closets are full. Can’t close the living room closet without rearranging a few things. My son Booth Boy went off to college recently and his sister MillieJupiter moved into his room. (Yes that is Booth Boy wailing away.) Now, there is a small spare room Booth Boy will sleep in when he visits during the holidays. Hope he doesn’t need the closet space, we already had taken most of it over and in the room changing process too much ground was lost to recover. Plus there is all his sports equipment.

My wife, Mrs. Fabulous, knits. ‘Nuff said. All those knitters out there understand. She has boxes and baskets and storage bins filled with her stash – that is yarn to be used on a rainy day I think, or a snowy day or some other time. Then there are the supplies – patterns and needles and bags and holders and half-done projects and on and on. It’s all pretty well organized but still it’s boxes and boxes of boxes and boxes. She has cordoned off a spot in the living room that seems to grow each and every day. She finishes lots of things – mittens, baby hats, troll dolls (ok, gnomes…), hand bags, scarves and the like. She is even going to knit me a man bag for Christmas, nice man colors like black and grey with some sort of organic button for show. But it all out there.

I too have my collections. Photo equipment, computer parts, craft projects to start or finish. I have a Kiln in the basement waiting for a good home. I manage (or is that mismanage) our family finances. Do you know how much paper that involves? I have boxes of bills paid (and unpaid!) medical notices and the like. I have had some health problems so there are medical supplies. Ms. Fabulous broke her wrist. Add more medical supplies.

When someone dies, we get more. My grandmother dying a few years ago brought several more boxes of memories. Ms. Fabulous lost her father and a sister in the last 8 months. More memories, more boxes, more stuff.

Every once in a while we vow to get organized. Several hours later we have used up a weekend afternoon to create a pile for Salvation Army (Uncle Sal’s!), enough dust from moving things we get allergy attacks, several fights (mostly about helping out)and still way too much junk. We are getting better however thanks to the internet.

We found a website called freecycle/cheapcycle that is area based. The Brookfields in Massachusetts has a group. You post that something is available and people come running to take your junk, I mean those treasures, away. Sometimes when the items are right they can’t get there fast enough. In the last few months we have given away a box of computer books, a tent, car top carrier, bread maker, computer desk (sorry booth Boy, no room in your closet!) There were lots of other things too. Thanks, fellow junk collectors. You have helped me tremendously.

Hopefully next weekend, we will tackle a blanket chest filled with country knick-knacks and a couple of bins in the computer room with books and spare parts and maybe some old programs. Then there is the cabinets under the dish shelves, the hall closet, then spare room closet (Booth Boy sigh of relief), the attic treasures and the garage. Hey did you know you can put a car in the garage to keep it warm and snow free in the winter? Will wonders never cease? I hope someone will want that stuff…

2 comments:

Mary Hulser said...

nice writing, penguin, i still want your junk.......Ms. Fabulous

Maqz said...

Some people have a real problem with this. Some live in absolute squalor unable to keep themselves from keeping things. They hire experts and tv shows to separate themselves from their things.

I think things weigh us down. I think we spend some of our precious ours, too many of our thought/minutes, thinking about where our things should go, or what we should do with our things, how we should keep our things, how we should protect our things and how can we get more of these things.

Then we die and someone takes our things out to the curb.

Its a gift to be able to divine the important from the non important.

The gurus may be right. It's a blessing to not have things.

I have an extra bedroom with a simple bedframe which I saved for my sister from my grandfather's things, and an empy dresser that my father made - both of which would fit in the empty spaces in my own bedroom.

I look at that spare room, and I smile a little.