Toss-It Tuesdays B — February 2021

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Early progress

There has been some.

ABOUT IMAGES If I’ve followed my intentions completely, every image in this post can be enlarged by clicking on it. If the image is part of a gallery, what at first displays as a collection of thumbnails, then clicking on it enlarges it and puts you in slideshow mode. If there’s a caption for the image, it will appear or disappear when you click anywhere in the image.

Translated into a different direction, this grandfatherly comment may apply to my stuff in the attic:

There’s a lot of good stuff and memories in my attic; especially memories …

… only you don’t remember whether that item came from that little restaurant on a side street in Barcelona, or you found it near the beach in Santa Barbara …

… and actually, its origin is neither Barcelona nor Santa Barbara …

… and you’re close to throwing it out anyway and none of kids have any interest in it.

Messages from Marie Kondo and Ann Patchett

With a little translation some of Marie Kondo’s key ideas are useful to us, especially: does it spark joy? and thank you for your service.

Ann Patchett’s article in the New Yorker has some good suggestions. She says, “Making sure that the right person got the right things was no longer the point. The point was that those things were gone.” 

That’s me! I’ve been paralyzed if I don’t want something but: I can’t find anyone to take it, it’s somehow too good to throw in the trash, no thrift store will take it, and it’s not recyclable.

Overview

Many boxes have been removed from our attic already: 16 for Chris; 3 for Paul. Our parlor is more cluttered than usual but 5 boxes are about to be dropped off at a thrift shop, and 3 more will soon be shipped to children.

Attic inventory is completed for now — see previous post. There will be updates but it’s good for now.

https://kingmouse.blog/2021/02/toss-it-tuesdays-january-2021/

Outlines of plans have emerged:

  • having inventory list feels good and may actually be useful;
  • lot of stuff will go to recycling center;
    • small mountain of styrofoam;
    • unwanted cardboard;
  • thrift stores? Catholic Charities is very close; Alphas now accept donations only in at headquarters on Cathedral Oaks;
  • check with children to see what they might want; e.g., all those rackets are earmarked for transfer to Melrose (maybe even leaving here today);
  • make Zoom calls for boxes marked with each girl’s name; go through contents over Zoom;
  • Paul, do you really need to hang on to those old Valiant seat covers? You think any of the girls might want them?
  • I’ve learned those 2 mattresses can be dropped off at MarBorg Industries waste site just a few blocks from here;
  • We’ve come across very few items to sell:
    • chandelier;
    • that cat tee shirt (!);
    • C’s futon
    • we’re NOT doing this for the money anyway (so that’s fine);

Specific items

  • 2 squash, 2 tennis; I bought the tennis racket on the right in Minneapolis in 1956 or 1957
  • squash racket bought in Rochester, NY in 1964 or 1965
  • I already forget what the story is here
  • birthday present from high school girlfriend in 1958; patched, stained, repaired, buttons replaced, worn, worn, worn
  • bear that will be reunited with Andrea sometime
Items whose dispositions have been decided, whose fates have been decided, whose woeful moons have risen (you get the idea)
  • Kate’s prom dress from Spring 1990
  • Kate wearing the dress in 1990
Guy on the right holding the flashlight with the roll of duct tape around his wrist has just emerged from the crawlspace under the house where he was doing something that must have been important.

Still more specifics

  • Chris emptied this column of boxes
  • before Chris emptied the column
  • Anyone out there want this rugby shirt? I do … ehhh did. Too small. And that big window’s on the wrong side of the walll.
  • window looks much better now
  • Red cowboy boots! They’re in good shape — did I ever see Chris wear these?
  • Other clothing items daughters can thumb wrestle over

Some boxes have been marked pretty well

  • Only item I saved. Part of a cup holder.
Treasures from 2004, eh? Lots of old keys; white glove for left hand — I think that was from my 1st wedding in 1965; baggie of turkey wishbones; and on it goes … The Pickles comic strip was saved originally because several years earlier I’d use C’s colonoscopy pictures in the Christmas card I sent out. All those treasures are now gone save for the funky-looking item in the right-hand photo. I used 3 short, fat, sheet metal screws to fasten this goodie over a shallow tray-like spot in my early 1980s Toyota Tercel; it’s part of a funky cup holder (that worked very well for me) using left-over insulated 12 gauge copper wiring, some of my favorite construction material;

How ’bout that Special Graph from 1986?

In the last 20 years I hadn’t admired the graph that Bob ???? so carefully printed out and taped together (hadn’t even looked at it). Last week I took the photos, thanked the graph for its service and politely threw it away. (I hope I put it in the recycling.)

24 pieces of U.S. standard letter-sized paper taped together; wavenumber range from 600 to 1080 cm-1 (16.67 to 9.26 micro-meters); abscissa is brightness temperature; comparing predicted spectrum from Air Force Atmospheric transmission model FASCODE with experimental results of U. Wisconsin Fourier transform spectrometer instrument; … anybody care?

This question keeps coming up: what will we do with the things we keep?

I’ll let you know.

Just plain indisputable progress — stuff actually leaving our house

Photo of Catholic Charities drop off and entrance. Not pretentious — my kind of place.

Just this afternoon Chris and I dropped off 4 boxes of donations here. I have the feeling we’ll be back before long.

A few minutes later the first 3 boxes of goodies were shipped to the girls via USPS; there’ll be more of these shipments, too.

Of course shipping is way more expensive than we expected!

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