Sunday, April 26, 2009

throwing out markers

moving is SUCH a pain. i've been trying to do it in steps, spending a few hours each afternoon packing, moving and throwing things away. i HATE throwing things away, but at the same time, i can't stand accumulating clutter. i will hold on to things that i don't like, want or need just because it is a perfectly good thing still, and i can't stand the thought of it being in a landfill. i should have a yardsale or something, but i don't really have THAT many things to get rid of, and i really don't think anyone else wants this crap either.

for example, i'm notoriously bad for hanging on the school supplies, even though i haven't really used school supplies since early highschool. pens, pencils, markers, duotangs, SO MANY packages of paper, loose staples, paperclips, post-it notes, little notebooks, christmas erasers that i have never used...it just accumulates and accumulates. it accumulates because i never use it, and because i never use it, it never gets old. i've been carrying around some of the same markers for at least ten years now. moving them house to house...even though my colouring medium of choice is crayons and i rarely use markers in the first place.

BUT, they're still perfectly good markers. and pencils. and christmas erasers. and nobody wants to buy an old marker at a yard sale, and no one really even wants them for free. they would rather go out and spend the $2 or $3 and buy a fresh pack. and that's what kills me!! people go out and spend money on this stuff...I spent money on this stuff...and yet, i really just need to part with it and put it in the trash.

and i don't just horde school supplies. i'm bad for old, broken electronics, WIRES for everything, hair elastics, old, crappy, broken jewelery, extra buttons, mangy towels, worn out underwear...you get the idea. stuff that no one wants...not even me, but that i can't really feel okay about throwing it out because in the majority of the world, people would LOVE to have this problem of too many things, or i know that it is bad for the environment to throw it out.

so, moving is frustrating for me. there's a lot of heavy lifting. there's the issue of making everything fit. and there's the process of letting go. you have to decide what to keep, what to sell, what to give away, what to give to a second hand store and what to ultimately throw away. it's nostalgic, surely. and it forces you to move on, which is important sometimes. but it also raises a lot of questions for me about poverty, wealth, commercialization, garbage, waste, etc.

but, just the same, i am really, really happy to be free of the markers that have been weighing me down for a decade.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about donating? I'd bet that an elementary school would love those supplies, especially if they're all in good shape. A lot of schools will take donations exactly like this for kids whose families may not be able afford school supplies.

athena said...

i thought of that WHILE i was writing this blog entry, AFTER i'd already tossed most of it. definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

AL said...

I just posted my comment on a different post. lol.