h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't normally make new year's resolutions or anything like that- that's not quite what this journal is about.

But after 10 years in the same space, within the next few months it will be time to find and move to a new home. I'm unsure yet whether we'll be buying, or moving to another rental. Depends what we find. But it's clearly time to start purging some stuff we don't need, or don't use at least, so we won't have to pay the movers to haul stuff we can just donate or something.

I admit I'm a bit of a packrat. I get it from my parents. In my defense, to some degree my tendency to hold on to things comes from a desire to reuse or repurpose them rather than being wasteful. So many people dispose of perfectly useful things, and I think it's immoral. So here I am with a cigar box full of twist ties and rubber bands, a jar containing every binder clip I have ever come in contact with, a storage bin filled with bubble wrap... you get the idea. And while K loves to get new jeans and socks, I don't think he has ever gotten rid of any during his entire adult life, no matter how tatty. I am not exaggerating when I say he has a small plastic dresser in the bedroom closet, and it's filled with nothing but socks.

And then there are all the small appliances, pots and pans, vases, etc, that my uncle has given me because he's cleaning out his house to prepare for selling and moving... had I known we'd be moving first, we'd have left some of it there till then.

I'm also sort of a neat freak, so clearing out some extraneous stuff would make me happier in terms of having less tidying to cope with. Particularly when my dearly beloved is perfectly happy to wallow in clutter and filth, so it's entirely up to me to keep the spice rack alphabetized and the clothes closets organized by color... at least this way I won't have to deal with organizing the Rubber Band Drawer or the Great Wall Of Plastic Containers as well.

So my goal for the beginning of this new year is to start clearing out a little stuff each week and donating it, recycling it, Freecycling it, or whatever needs to be done. We need to make sure we can fit all of our books into the moving truck!

Geez, by the title, I figured you might be looking for a new partner. Hell, you barely have this one broken in and trained yet.

Good luck with the sorting. As you know, we have moved maybe 6 times in our joined 26 years or so. The last time around, we got ruthless about it. I still have bins and tins of mismatched screws and springs and rubber drive belts for various devices ... But I no longer have 7 dead VCRs, 4 stereo amps and yadda-yadda other things that I 'might' scavenge from. As to the old clothes, I still have some military work clothes that refuse to die, but once socks have more holes than I do, they have no use what-so-ever. Jeans? A slightly different idea, I don't part with them easily.

No, as part of my aim to be easier on the environment and be less wasteful, I've decided to stop using men and then throwing them away.

I'm trying to make a list of things we don't need to keep. Obviously we now have two CPU towers to recycle. Along with those we'll need to drag the old CRT monitor and an old printer. The older keyboards and mice we can probably just donate to regular charity pickups (they don't take computers but I bet they'll take those, and maybe the old scanner). I also have a really old dot-matrix printer I saved for posterity in hopes some might have a use for it. Probably time to recycle or Freecycle that.

There's some stuff that's hard, though. My sister, for some odd reason, sent us a set of bath towels some years back. I've never used them- never even took the tags off yet- as they're red and my bathroom is in orange and blue. I'm loath to get rid of brand new towels and wind up buying more new towels later- if we find a place with two bathrooms, I can just make them work. And I really hate to get rid of the extra dishes my grandma gave me, but we have tons of everyday ones already and she also gave me antique china, service for 12, that belonged to her parents. I don't need enough plates for more than 28 people, I'd never have that many people over at once. Hell, I hope I never have 8 at once.

And just too much crap has "sentimental" value and I can't part with it...

Towels, dishes, drapery, ... If you can find a dry space for 'em, sure! Keep them. We have some of the ugliest towel set yet that we'll personally use day-to-day. Never, EVER visible when someone comes by though.

Best of luck with being sufficiently 'brutal' though.

I lot of charities take IT equipment we'd be sniffy about (being spoilt westerners) for refurb and use in developing countries. Might be worth a look if you've got a lot of that kind of stuff.

I'd gotten someone at the Audubon Society who wanted the scanner, but we could never coordinate for her to pick it up and they couldn't allow me to drop it off for some reason.

I now have a 15", a 17" and a 23" flat panel monitor, so at least one of those should go, too. Probably both, though a little voice in my head says if we get a new laptop, we'll get a docking station, and the 17" monitor might be nice to hang on to.

Don't want to go *too* crazy and wind up replacing anything... that's even more wasteful than paying movers for another half hour.

I think what we need to get rid of, mainly, are extraneous clothing and all the odds and ends I've held on to... empty jars and plastic tomato baskets and such. I keep meaning to see if a local school or day care wants them for crafts or something, but never find time to ask.

>>No, as part of my aim to be easier on the environment and be less wasteful, I've decided to stop using men and then throwing them away.

It's OK. You can compost us.

Well, once you've finished, can you come over here and help me sort and get rid of stuff I haven't used for years?

Any excuse for a vacation!