Text 20571, 78 rader
Skriven 2008-09-10 13:16:29 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Cleaning time (was: Geo-location)
=========================================
Hello Robert,

On Wednesday September 10 2008 07:46, you wrote to me:

 MV>> Since then the rule is: Have I used it in the last two years? Will
 MV>> I need it in the year to come? If the answer to both questions is
 MV>> "no", out it goes.

 RB> My wife would _love_ you for that attitude, but it's diametrically
 RB> opposite to mine. I take the attitude that as long as I have plenty of
 RB> space,

Haven't you heard about Parkinson's law for storage space? "The required space
will exceed the available space by 10%."

 RB> why throw things away that might be useful or interesting someday?

The problem is I do not have an infinite amount of storage space. With the
Honda VF750 cam etwo boxes of spare parts that I still have to find a place
for. The are now in the shed, but they are terribly in the way there. Something
else will have to go to make room.

 RB>  And if not to you, then to your decendents.

In 2000 my parents moved from the house they had been living in for over 50
years to an old folks home. There was no choice, their physical condition had
detoriated to the point that they could no longer care for it. My father could
never throw away anything. So the house was full. And the job of cleaning it
out fell on me...

I did it with love, but I decided I do not want to shove such a burden on my
decendants. I start cleaning out now while I still can.

Of course the "not used in two years" rule is just a guideline. It is not
rigourously enforced. I make exceptions for real valuable stuff and family
heirlooms.

 RB> I'd _love_ to have more things from my folks, but when they moved from
 RB> Texas to Florida, my mother sold or threw out most of what they had.
 RB> For me that was a loss of family history.

I understand that.

 RB> On the other hand, I tend to also keep things that really are just
 RB> junk, in the hope that I can someday cannibalize them for parts.

So did I. With the result that I have so much that when I need somethinh I have
forgooten I have it. Or even worse: I *know* I have it somewhere but can not
find it... :-(

 RB> I'm presently straightening up the attic and dumping the stuff that is
 RB> really junk, since it has not been, nor will it ever be useful to me.

I am offering for sale some thirty glass jars used for conserving food. "Weck"
is the German brand name. I used to have a pear tree in my garden that twenty
years ago gave tons of pears every year. http://www.vlist.eu/perenboom/

I gave away a lot but I also conserved a lot in these glass jars. But it gave
less and less and the tree died last year and has been taken down. I no longer
have the kettle and thermometer. The content of all but seven jars has been
eaten. I will never use the jars again, so why keep them? I can use the space.

 RB> Some of the porcelain fixtures I replaced when I bought the house over
 RB> 20 years ago are going to the junk pile in the sky. However, I'm
 RB> keeping a large number of parquet boards for the herringbone parquet
 RB> flooring in the house, since they're solid oak and are impossible to
 RB> obtain nowadays if a replacement should someday be necessary.

Yep, good wood is expensive. I don't throw that away either unless it is very
low quality. I certainly don't throw away the oak boards that I salvaged from
my parents place. But then I *use* wood. Of course I can not tell which
particular boards I will use in the foreaable future, but that I will use some
of it is almost certain.

Cheers, Michiel

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