Junkola and why you shouldn't keep any...

I am currently involved in the clean-out of my parents' home. They owned and lived it in for 54 years. Do you know how much junk, stuff, flotsam and jetsam, odds and ends, useless bits of nothingness you can accumulate in that amount of time? There aren't enough dumpsters in my hometown to accommodate the "special" things that my parents kept. Depression children learned to save EVERYTHING!!

My Dad loved keeping every bent nail, screw, nut, washer, bolt, odd tool, widget, etc. He was sure he'd need it someday, and occasionally there was a "someday" and he was able to put one of those saved "goodies" to good use. And that "someday" then became the mantra for why we should save everything. If a person could reach Nirvana by becoming a world class pack rat, then my Dad is somewhere in that mythical place right now (probably organizing the screws, nails, nuts, bolts and other similar items into very neat little containers) and he is happy as can be. He also loved visiting the dump. He could find all kinds of "potential" put-to-good-use things there. His original task of taking things to the dump to de-clutter always faded away once he drove through the gates of our city refuse depository. He always brought more home than he unloaded. Dad thought of the many projects he was going to do "someday" (also related to the someday when he'd use that itty-bitty odd screw he'd been saving for 25 years), and, if he was short of projects before he arrived, all that tossed away stuff was fodder for his imagination and he would think up dozens of new projects based on the "treasures" that other foolish people had thrown away.

My Mom accumulated clothes and things for the kitchen, and, later in life, when she was involved in some business and charitable organizations, she learned to save paper--mounds of it--and she kept it in multiple binders or plastic storage "envelopes". So I am finding paperwork from the 1980s through 2006, but I'm sending all of it to the garbage can. The way I figure it, if no one has asked for any of this stuff for all these years, it's probably not important to the life of the organization and the earth will continue to turn on its axis if it is thrown away. Does anyone remember the motto of the computer age--that we'd be a paperless society as soon as computers were in every home and business. Well, I think we have achieved that, but we seem to have way more paper than before we were paperless. We have to keep "hard" copies of what is on our computer in case we need to show it to someone who isn't close to a computer, or who doesn't own a computer (yes, there are still a few people who are in that dinosaur-walked-the-earth category), or to read at a meeting, or just in case our computer decides to turn into a comedian and crash on us taking everything with it. I am also trying to get rid of kitchen gadgets--the kinds of things we see featured on late night TV that everyone "just has to have" for $19.95 and, if you're among the first 100 callers, you'll get two items plus a combination skunk and grizzly bear repellent all for the same great price. There is guilt in throwing anything away even if you aren't a Depression era child. The quandry is trying to rationalize why any item that isn't worn out should be thrown out--"It's still good. Someone could probably use this. It will just fill up the land-fill that is already full. If I didn't already have 12 of these myself, I'd keep it." Clothing is even harder because there are memories attached to each article we or our family members have worn in the past. No one, well almost no one, looks at a meat thermometer and gets all misty-eyed thinking about the pot roast that was served the Christmas that Uncle Goony fell face first into the green Jello salad. But we remember places we wore a piece of clothing--a first date, a wedding, a baptism or christening, a special vacation--and throwing or giving away the clothing is like dispensing with the memory--"Enough of you. Take that! Be gone!"

So I guess I can't really blame my parents for keeping all the stuff they bought and all the stuff my Sister and I, our kids and our grandkids have sent over the years for all the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. We've added considerably to the stash of stuff no one really needed or even asked for. But, having spent the past two days preparing my Mom and Dad's house for sale, I am committing here and now to simplifying my life, getting rid of what I don't actually need or use, avoiding the purchase of items that aren't replacements for something worn out or totally broken and beyond duct tape (duct tape--another favorite Dad collectible), and never watching late night TV infommercials! I will repent of my sinful purchasing and hoarding habits today, just as soon as I take the Flo-Bee Hair Cutting apparatus out of the carton and find a spot in my crowded closet for it. Someday my kids will find it in my "treasure" trove and they will probably wonder what I was thinking and I'm betting one of them will wonder if they shouldn't keep it...just in case.