Well... why does one keep stuff that is no longer needed?. I know why I do.
I at least have an excuse. Both my parents were immigrants and poor immigrants at that. They lived through the depression and saw the day to day life in the old country. So when my mother died, it was about two dumpster worth of stuff that she had , we threw away.
Now here in Santa Rosa, one of our employees is gone, and we are in the process of cleaning up that department, and tossing out stuff.
The sad thing is that there are perfectly good items that are being tossed out because technology has made them obsolete. Printers that are made so poorly and cheaply that instead of making them cost effective to repair you toss out the whole laser printer.
Why ?
Because you can buy a new one for about $25 dollar more than it cost to buy a replacement cartridge.
Other stuff is cell phones, perfectly good and brand new, their only crime is being passed up by the runaway freight train of popular design.
After all who want a phone nowadays that is Analog or even digital without a cameras.........ME!
I would rather have an old analog phone with nice big buttons then the new one I have now, but noooooooooo.
There is no more analog.
That format only lasted 20 years , but I guess in electronics that's several lifetimes.
About 20 years ago when the 2 way radios were changing in the US, I had a bright idea to sell the older ones in Mexico. I figured it would be a good place to sell some used equipment. Well, I did come down and even sold some, but for the most part they all wanted all the new stuff!
Even at 10cents on the dollar, they still wanted new stuff!
So much for my Mexico landmine radio business........
I still sort of do something like that now,sell some little bit dated but working equipment, but only if the equipment is no more than a few years old!
Anyway we all need to trim our taste for stuff that gets wound up in a landfill somewhere. Cleaning up the stuff here just points out that I need to start doing that personally also. After all I don't want my wife to have to weed through all the stuff.. I am sure she will just fill a dumpster with my stuff after I depart.
Why not just, not fill the house up with stuff?
I started one thing about 10 years ago. I refused to by anything for the kitchen ( and we all know how people like kitchen gadgets) unless they were multitasking. That one thing cleaned out my kitchen junk drawer immediately.
At least it's a start!
2 comments:
Ken,
I think I am a hopeless case. I must be a junk magnet. All I have to do is get near some interesting old stuff and it clings to me. I don't know what they are going to do with all my junk when I die. Better just make my grave really, really big and then throw in the junk after me. That way I can keep and eye on it and perhaps after an eternity I will get it all organized :)
Bob, I use to do that, then when the shed, the garage and my workshop got so small I just had to do something. It's hard, but you just gotta try, I still have too much stuff! But you are right, there is a lot of neat stuff out there !
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