I have a sermon to write and am feeling stuck in this &^%$#! text that is giving me no place to hide. Darn Word of God.
But then along comes the F5 to provide me with a brief respite. This one is about clutter:
1. Are you a hoarder or a minimalist?
Minimalist, married to a moderate hoarder. For many hoarders the criterion for keeping something is either “Can I imagine a use for this?” or “Are there memories attached to this object?” Not the right questions, in my opinion.
An alternative to the first: “How much of a pain would my life be if I suddenly needed this in the future… and how likely am I to need it?”
And as to the second, most everything has a memory attached to it. I’m not sure what the alternative question would be to that though. Maybe “Does the memory live on even if I don’t hang on to this thing?” Like do you need everything great Aunt Mildred left to you?
2. Name one important object (could be an heirloom) that you will never part with.
I’m honestly having a hard time coming up with something, aside from obvious stuff like wedding pictures.
I guess since I have very few physical items belonging to my father, I’ll be loath to part with them. I have a Harley t-shirt, a pair of his reading glasses, a snippet of diary in his handwriting. Stuff like that.
3. What is the oldest item in your closet? Does it still fit???
Probably my almost-13-year-old wedding dress. It’s heirloomed in a box, so I don’t have to deal with the agony of the second question.
Oh wait, I still have two or three T-shirts from college. Musicals I was in, a shirt with the logo of our on-campus CoffeeHouse, which is where my relationship with R really grew, stuff like that.
4.Yard sales- love ‘em or hate ‘em ?
I like the *idea* of them, as an alternative to people buying new stuff. Same with freecycle. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure and all that, but sometimes one person’s trash just needs to remain trash.
I never seek out yard sales. I did happen upon a baby bouncy seat recently, which was good because we’d given ours to Goodwill. I am a Goodwill power-user.
5. Name a recycling habit you really want to get into.
Good question. I’d like to compost, but we don’t really do enough gardening to use much of the resulting product. We also need to find a better way to store ‘big’ stuff that needs to be recycled, like batteries, computer equipment and compact flourescent bulbs.
An excellent F5, Sally.
8 Responses to “friday five: oh the procrastination!”
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T-shirts.
Those are the hoarders’ nightmare. They’re all so sentimental…..
how likely am I to need it?
If I throw it away? 100% within 2 weeks.
It’s hard to get rid of things of our departed loved ones. Unfortunately, I am still renting a storage unit in Bellingham, WA, with things from my parents home from when my dad died in 1992. I live in S. Texas, and all that stuff is still up there. I am sure I’d part with more stuff now, but I’m too far away.
just heard a good hoarding/recycling story at my book group yesterday. a 50 woman had been given a doll house made by her dad when she was a child. she had kept it for ~40 years, moving it from house to house to house and finally her husband convinced her to sell it at a yard sale. she sold it for $50. after she sold it she was absolutely bereft and told her husband that if they ever saw the doll house in an antique shop that he would have to buy it for her, no matter the cost. he agreed.
several years later they came across it in warrenton at an antique venue and bought it for $350.
there is a cost in saving things (because we have to store it and care for it and go through it whenever we’re looking for something else). there’s also a cost in getting rid of stuff if we’re really meant to save it. it’s all a matter of discernment, i guess.
“Goodwill power-user” — fantastic! I never get things there, but I’m usually donating to them or BB/BS (Big Brothers Big Sisters). BB/BS is probably my slight preference because they’ll come and pick it up, which is convenient when you’re a busybusy seminarian!
(PS– note the new blog!)
lukee hoards his minimalism
lukee will never part with his dark virtue
the oldest item in lukee’s closet is the echo of his soul
lukee hates that people don’t love yard sales
lukee is interested in recycling dreams
I agree on the t-shirt thing. I have a duffel bag in a closet filled with them from various high school events that I often have thought about finding someone to quilt them together for me and put it… exactly.
Wedding dress - I have that too, I was never sure where that should go although it was an obvious keeper. Not sure where it headed now but I will certainly not make an rash decisions. No matter what - I looked AMAZING on that day!
Oops, forgot my wedding dress when I did my F5. It’s almost 27 years old. I do still have the T-shirt I was wearing on my first date w/ G&T tucked away in a keepsake box somewhere. Other than that, T-shirts are the first to go! I don’t wear them well.