In case you didn't notice, ahem, I packed up 288 books for donation. I could have done more, but I ran out of boxes that were of a reasonable size to pack them in. Those are going out on October 30. There's also an Epilepsy Foundation pickup in my neighborhood 10/28, so I'm going to get some things together for that today. And there's the annual coat drive in work which I'm sure some of my older jackets could and should go to. That's not even mentioning the things that I've plain thrown out while trying to declutter this house or the stuff that, hand to god, I'm calling the 1-800-gotjunk guys for.
So I think about this. There's all my things going to charity. The coat drive coats will go directly to people who ain't got coats, which is good. The other stuff will go to resale/charity shops where, most probably, it will be bought by other people like me who have too much crap to begin with. Maybe to replace other crap they've donated, in one of those vicious cycles. The stuff that doesn't sell in the charity shops gets tossed anyway, or maybe sold to third world countries. (Which is why, also hand to god, I expect to someday see some malnourished famine victim in Africa on my TV wearing my ironic I'm Too Punk Rock For This t-shirt.)
Meanwhile, I go to my favorite stores, like the Tarzhay, and you know my frustration is that there is not one single thing there that isn't made in China. There are whole superstores full of more and more stuff, most of which is shoddy crap, that will be ultimately bought by people who will then donate it to charity where it will be bought by other people, or throw it away, and replace it with more crap and WHERE DOES IT ALL END? There's only a finite amount of crap any one person can use, keep, or store, and yet more and more crap is made and imported and sold every day and we're kinda told it has to be this way or the whole economy will crash. I dunno. At least your ironic t-shirts can be used as rags if they don't end up covering the chests of refugees, so maybe we should all concentrate on buying more of those.
In other news, one of the consumer items I dearly wish I owned, if only for today, is a scanner, because I found yesterday, while beginning my cleaning of the dreaded cat box room cum office, a photo of her from kittenhood, in which she is wrestling with one of those minipumpkin/gourds and her ears are pulled back in such a way that she appears to have horns. It's the best Halloween picture evah, yet I cannot share it with you. Boo!
xoxo
6 comments:
When I cleaned out my grandfather's place I called a company and had a 30 yard dumpster delivered to the driveway. (They pick it up again when you call them to tell them it's full). I also had it delivered and picked up a second time. (But he was 99, so had a few years on you to accumulate the extra). You might consider something smaller than 30 yards, but it's a pretty easy low-cost option to paying people to do the hauling "by hand".
I know you don't believe in spending any money (which leads me to wonder how you've accumulated so much "stuff" you now need to throw out) but one can buy a perfectly good and relatively small brand-name scanner for under $100 nowadays. Just sayin'
You guys are seriously killing me here.
First of all,
1.) Yes, I should definitely park a dumpster in my driveway for a couple weeks because MY NEIGHBORS DON'T HATE ME ENOUGH ALREADY. (Actually, it would probably be worth it just to piss a few people off.)
Second of all,
2.) The last thing I need is a scanner, thankyouverymuch. I have one effin' photo I would like to upload. I do not think this justifies purchasing another craptacular consumer item, even if it is under $100. As a matter of fact, I once upon a time had a printer in this house that had a scanner function and I never used it. Not once.
So, in conclusion, I think I shall save my $100 and use it towards hiring the gotjunk guys who will come to my house and remove everything I point at in half an hour or less.
It's people like you that are destroying our economy. Aside from your unconscionable refusal to make proper use of consumer credit, and thus help us all keep our all-but-bankrupt-too-big-to-fail-banks in the black
1) You're not lining the pockets of the (always mobbed up) waste disposal industry, thus preventing the Real Housewives of Natick from having the money for manicures, pedicures, and incredibly overpriced condo mall living.
(Is Natick where reality TV housewives would live around Boston? I have no idea where big haired, big makeuped, and big spending Housewives hang out outside of Revere, and I don't think the Revere Housewives are so into the Big Spending).
2) You're not helping to prop up the consumer electronics industry in their own desperate time of need. What, a $90 Canon scanner is going to hurt you? Geez, stop being such a tightwad.
I mean, you could go out and buy a disposable film camera, take pictures of all your junk for the gotjunk guys, take it to CVS for processing, take the prints back from CVS, scan them in with your new 21st Century scanner, and then send the scans in emails to the gotjunk people so they know what they're getting themselves into.
Just look at all the desperately needed economic activity that will be generated by you loosening the tight grip on your purse and living large...
Or you could take the original photo to Kinkos. I think they usually have scanners (at least the big ones, like the ones in Harvard Square). But that will only cost you $2, not $200. No economic engine in overdrive there...
See, I don't even want to do this enough to go to Kinkos. I'm lazy. Haven't you been paying attention? Geez.
I think the Real Housewives of Massachusetts would live somewhere on the South Shore, but that's just b/c I'm supposed to hate on the South Shore :-)
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