Saturday, January 05, 2008

Time Traveling Pack Rat

My Second Most Faithful Reader installed seven additional Closetmaid shelves in my guest room closet over the Christmas break, so today I worked on going through boxes and boxes of stuff and determining where things should go.

Pack rat that I am, going through all the random things I've collected in boxes is almost like going back in time. I opened up an accordion file folder that I probably hadn't opened in over ten years and it was like opening up a time capsule that contained letters, grade reports, invoices, pay stubs, manuals, back-of-the-envelope diagrams that still trigger enough memories to recollect what they were and jewelry designs.

I found my old Sony Walkman radio-cassette player and it brought back memories of showing it off to relatives, when I first got it in the late 80s. It's very yellow, so it was pretty much love at first sight. I got a lot of use out of it and I believe it still works, even though the headphones look a little tired. I still have loads of cassettes and I have more German language tapes than I know what to do with. I also found taped recordings I made when I chose to interview people about death for a cultural anthropology assignment.

The worst part is knowing what to do with the things I don't want. I have great difficulties throwing things away that are perfectly good, but aren't my taste. Yes, I know there are plenty of places that accept things that are in good condition, but wouldn't it be easier to change my taste instead? That's a lot more practical. Even worse, there are things that I do like that are wearing out. Where do I draw the line? These are only issues for pack rats, aren't they?

1 comment:

  1. I also have incredible difficulties throwing things out that are still in good shape, but not really of use to me. I have several large plastic bins filled with junk that I just can't toss out because of memories tied to them (and I'm not talking brilliant memories, some are just mediocre). This always makes moving an even bigger pain than it should be.

    ReplyDelete