All the thrift stores seem to have had the same bright idea: “Hey, since there’s a pandemic, let’s limit the hours during which people can bring donations!” I’m no virologist, but I suspect that keeping people inside at the cash register is more dangerous than keeping people outside, typically at great distance from other people except during brief exchanges during which both parties are required to wear masks anyway. Not only do these new, restricted hours make donating extremely inconvenient, they also mean that whenever you go, you get stuck in a huge-ass line.
I’m just butt-hurt because I got flushed out of dropping stuff off today, and the last time it worked out, I had to endure something like a 20-minute wait. F- you, Goodwill.
The more interesting part of this is that there is so much in this world to donate in the first place. Every month, nay, every two weeks I find stuff to get rid of. I’ve been pushing pretty hard lately to find more, honestly. I’m on a streak and feeling kind of obsessed with the endeavor (it’s great fun), but it’s been making a huge difference. Why is that? And how is that? How do I have so much stuff that there is always something more to get rid of?
This is the tyranny of stuff. Things are much more easily acquired than gotten rid of. This flies in the face of a world that is always complaining about money, but then again, the things worth having are often expensive, and the more worthless things are often free. We often take free because it seems like an awesome deal. It costs us nothing! But this isn’t always true: sometimes it costs us our sanity and our space.
If ever I have given you something whose usefulness or time has passed, get rid of it! I’ll not have anybody saying my gifts are a burden, do you hear me?!
I’ve been writing on this blog, I just haven’t been posting anything for the past few weeks. But I have a whole rant, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, written about the tyranny of roasting sticks (the pronged ones you use over a fire). The average household just has an enormous number of things in it, many of which are kept because of their supposed usefulness or because they are culturally recommended. If you want to live a simple life, you really have to work hard to throw these illusions off.
Today I was finally able to take a great many chemicals from the garage to the city for recycling, an event they do over two weekends once per year. I’ve been waiting a long time for this! And it was so nice to get rid of those. You could throw those chemicals away in the trash, but that is usually illegal. More importantly, it’s bad for the environment. But such is the case, then, that buying a $5 aerosol can leaves you with extremely few options for disposal: a specialty recycler that you have to pay, or a once-per-year city-wide cleanup event. I’ll keep saying it: things are much more easily acquired than gotten rid of.
I have some nice shirts that I never wear, so I prepared them for donation. They didn’t cost me much, but I’ve had them for years. Ditto with jeans. Most of them fit, but I could probably live comfortably cycling through 3 pairs. So why did I have 8? One here, one there, but only the favorites ever get worn. Strange how we do that, huh? Perfectly good clothes that fit well and that we claim to like, but I tell you, “actions speak louder than words” is the 100% truth discriminator when it comes to clothes.
It’s exciting to get rid of things (maybe I’m crazy), but these days I’m just sick and tired of not being able to take things to the thrift store during the hours they used to keep. Who are the idiots running these places, anyway?
Ah, whatever. There’s only so much that really contributes to your life: the rest is noise. Fight the stuff!