Drowning In Clutter

[kerravonsen]

I have STUFF. It accumulates. Being a frugal, responsible person, I kept a lot of it because "it might be useful" or "somebody else might find it useful" or "I could give it away on Freecycle" or "I could sell it on Ebay". And I did none of the above. None.

The effort and stress of listing something on Ebay has obviously been too great for me to summon up the energy to do. Likewise for Freecycle. This gives me much guilt, because putting things into landfill when they could be recycled is BAD. BAD KA! BAD BAD BAD! I have thus been caught between feeling guilty if I threw it away, and feeling stressed if I didn't. Because Stuff Taking Up Space is getting to really stressful levels for me. I have all these craft materials! I need to put them somewhere! I'm running out of space!

I have finally said "enough!" (or "too much", really). Forget Ebay. Forget Freecycle. Forget them all. One phone call, and I have booked a Hard Rubbish collection. My hope is that people round about will take at least some things off the pile before it gets collected by the Local Council. Shove my guilt, the stress has just gotten TOO MUCH. Stuff it!

So. Hard rubbish. Today I've been going around the house gathering stuff and clearing away stuff. Hopefully my nephew will help me tomorrow to put heavy things outside on the kerb.

Here are some of my rules-of-thumb:

1. If I haven't used or looked at something in five or ten years, I'm not likely to.
   • This includes my fireplace. I cleaned out all the old charcoal and ashes this morning. Lots of spiderwebs too. The fire-tools are going on the heap. Likewise the pile of unused logs. This will free up a nice tiled alcove that could be Quite Useful.
   • This does NOT include books. They are sacrosanct.
2. If something is hidden away in a tangled mess in a box, I'm not likely to know that I have it to use anyway.
3. If it's something electronic (a device, or cables, or plugs) I won't know whether it works or not, since even if it used to work, it may no longer do so. And if I need the thingie, I'm probably better off buying a new one.

Some surprise finds:

• Going through the pockets of an old backpack, I found three pieces of jewellery (likely used for cosplay at some convention or other). I had completely forgotten they existed!
• I had not realised that I still had heaps of old floppy disks (and old Zip disks -- does anyone remember those?) even though I no longer had any means for reading them! So now I have a couple of floppy-disk drawers that I can put something else into. Hmmm.
• Found a couple of sets of playing cards I'd bought ages ago and forgotten about.
• Looked in the box of computer stuff and was surprised to see a gunmetal-coloured sphere at the bottom. Turned out it was the ball from a no-longer-working trackball. So I've now put it with the "things that might be wire-wrapped and turned into pendants" -- it was very pretty.
• My Onyx Boox e-book reader was in a box of junk, and it appears to still be working. This was the second Boox I bought (after the first one died). Both of them were far too expensive, but they did have features I really liked. However, I find I'm using my Pocketbook e-book reader as my default e-book reader, so I'm not really using the Boox. Anyone want an e-book reader?

Some of the things going on the heap:

• old CRT TV. Still works, but incompatible with everything modern.
• dead computer (box)
• dead external hard disks
• old HP Scanjet 5p; still works, just there was a yellow streak down one side of the scan. Best scanner I've ever used. Fabulous for taking "pictures" of jewellery. Lasted many years, too.
• more recent HP scanner. Even out of the box it was utter crap.
• a second-hand touchscreen (stylus-driven) that I could only get to work as a dumb screen rather than a touchscreen. I don't know if it was because it was incompatible with Linux or because the touchscreen part was broken.
• fire tools (as mentioned above) Poker, tongs, fire screen etc.
• lots and lots of computer/video cables; half of them I don't know what they are. Basically if it isn't being used right now, I'm getting rid of it.
• my old cordless phone set
• my previous netbook; I kept on hoping it could be fixed (something wrong with the electric plug) but never got around to actually asking anyone to do so
• various bits and bobs of computery stuff, such as old modems and mice
• the aforementioned floppy disks and zip disks. I took the zip disks out of their cases; figured I might be able to use the cases for small jewellery items. The zip disk cases are smaller and deeper than CD cases, but similarly flip-top clear plastic.

It will be good to get rid of it all.

Comments

[sulien]

Dude, I totally hear you about the clutter. I've got boxes of stuff in my garage that haven't seen the light of day in over a decade, much of it fabric and the same goes for my cosplay stuff. Know anyone who wears a ladies size 10 boot?

One suggestion for you: contact your local school or school district to see if they want the craft supplies. When I moved into my house, I wound up giving all of the used packing paper to the local high school's art teacher to have their students use it in paper maché projects. The local school district or community college could probably make great use of your cosplay stuff, too. And the donations would be tax deductible, just get a receipt for what you think the stuff is worth if you sold it.

[kerravonsen]

No, no, you misunderstand - I am keeping the craft supplies! Using them to make lovely stuff to sell on Etsy.

[sulien]

Ah, sorry about that, I misunderstood.

[reynardo]

Did you say "Ladies' size 10 boot"?

Oh. Drat. Just a bit far away for me to come and try them on...

[sulien]

Yep, women's size 10 Frye 12R harness boots in 'plum', which is more of a deep oxblood than purple. Frye's harness boots tend to run about a half size large, so they could definitely be worn with thicker socks. Also, the heel slips around a lot like cowboy boots. They are gorgeous and I love them, but they have a 2" heel with zero arch support, which means I can't wear them to walk in. A trip through the grocery store and standing outside to talk to a friend for 15 minutes has my feet, knees and back hurting as if I'd been wearing higher heels to walk a mile. :-(

I paid $280 for the stupid things and have worn them less than a dozen times over the past 10 years and they are barely broken in (the soles are barely marked). I don't want to sell them on Ebay because of the hassles and I'd really like to get $100 for them, but they've been sitting unworn in my closet for years now and I just want someone to pay shipping and get them out of my sight. I have always loved the look of these boots and it bums me out to no end that I can't wear them.

[thewayne]

I'm also purging stuff, mainly to get rid of storage lockers and eliminate $100+ a month in fees. SOOO MANY books that I've acquired over the years that I have zero interest in reading again.

One word of warning re: your monitor -- it contains lead and other nastiness, just like a TV. It might, by statute, require special recycling and cannot be just thrown out like trash.

[kerravonsen]

Well, I checked with the Council rules about Hard Rubbish, and they specificially included TV's, so...

[suenicorn]

Kathryn, you're getting to the age when, like me, you have too much Stuff. I have let all my friends know that I want no more Stuff as gifts. I'd rather have one of those Oxfam cards informing you that you have given someone a goat or seeds or clean water. If they must give me a solid gift, then something I can use up, please, like soap or homemade jam or biscuits(my library tech does the best orange marmalade from her very own home grown oranges and her kourabiedes are melt-in-the-mouth delicious), or a homemade woolly scarf if they knit.

Last year I donated over 100 books for Continuum fundraising and I STILL have overflowing shelves. My rule was, it had to be in perfect condition, and something I had either never got around to finishing or had read and enjoyed but not enough to keep and it had to be speculative fiction because what else would fans want to get in a raffle or trivia quiz?
My flats had a recent hard rubbish collection due to a messy tenant leaving his junk out the front, not in the street, and I used it to get rid of my non working DVD/VCR. I smile when I see the empty space, but I'm a long way behind. I'd rather recycle or give away, but that's not always possible.

[kerravonsen]

I'd rather recycle or give away, but that's not always possible.

Exactly. The difficulty with giving away is finding someone who wants whatever-it-is.

Kathryn, you're getting to the age when, like me, you have too much Stuff.

The irony is that both my eldest brother and my father are also trying to get rid of Stuff, and they want to give it to me! *headdesk*

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Oh god - zip disks! And the Click of Death!

[kerravonsen]

(grin)
The "Click of Death"? Not sure what you mean.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

A short description (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death) of the sign that you had the one in 10 (ignore their figure) of zip disks that wasn't just faulty and destroying your data, but threatening to bugger up the drive for everyone else.

[kerravonsen]

Ah, right. I just remember that Zip drives were like "Wow, you can get so much on the disk and it's only a little bigger than a floppy!" and then they vanished when the Next Big Thing came along. Didn't help that the actual disks were relatively expensive.