Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    
    
    	Throwing out things is healthy, I had a couple of good dump
    runs this weekend too...
    
    	...my 4th pair of roller skates
    	...my Dad's old bowling ball
    	...my PDP-11/05 
    	...my 2nd "antique" GE fan
    	...my ALCO diesel-electric locomotive maintainence manual, that
    	   my Mom bought for me
    
    	"walking on sunshine", now -
    
    	Joe Jas
    

    I just moved into a new house (sort of -- it's still half a
    construction project), and had a grand old time unpacking and throwing
    things away.  My problem -- I have to toss when my husband is not
    around.  He's a hoarder.  Once in a while, though, I'll keep something
    that is really garbage because of sentimental value.  
    
    There is nothing so satisfying as looking at an empty shelf that
    was recently piled with junk you haven't used in three years.

    my extreme story is 
    I moved 7 times in five years
    looked at boxes in my garage that had not been opened thru
    all those moves 
    thru them out
    without ever knowing what was in them
    

    The worst kind of junk (the most insidious) is the "lovely" vase
    your mother gave you (from her "lovely vase" collection) that you
    happen to despise.  OR the "perfectly good, still" coat someone
    gave you that you haven't thrown away because "there's plenty of
    wear in it yet"...or how about the absolutely grotesque lamp your
    aunt Vivan gave you that she told you (again and again) cost A 
    LOT of money--and you'd feel like a wharf rat if you gave it away.
    After all, what happens when she comes to visit and it isn't there??
    
    I don't know about you, but these are just some of the explanations
    I have that tie me to great quantities of unless and unappreciated
    junk.  If I had the courage to dump it all, I'd feel free...that
    is, until I used the space I gained for more junk.  I don't think
    there's an end to junk--I think it's infinite.  I also believe that
    there's an infinite number of people to find that junk and bestow
    it upon YOU.
    
    Helplessly,
    
    Jane

    I love junk, as I love memories...one of the things I enjoy doing
    is going through boxes of treasures and remembering the events and
    or the times.
    
    I am an incurable packrat...

    I also love flea markets where I buy memories of my parents home
    and my grandmothers home....

    Have you read "Earthly Possesions" by Anne Tyler?!!!!!

    No, but sounds interesting....

    
    
    Why is it that two weeks after I throw something out, I always find
    a use for it?
    
    

    I the junk collector am a great resource for the neatniks.  Especially
    at work.  
    
    Everyday someone says to me...
    
      "Joyce, do you have a copy of the memo...."
    
    I smile and go to the right pile and hand them the memo...

Everyone has a "junk drawer" don't they?  Whenever my sister's junk drawer
gets filled to overflowing, she just dumps it into a bag or box and puts it
in the cellar.  To my knowledge she never ever looks into that bag or box
again, and she never throws them away.

I love junk, too.  And just like Dennis, as soon as I get rid of something,
even if it hasn't been used in years, I'll discover a need for it very 
shortly thereafter.

I'm most sorry that I threw away my diary from my 13th year, and the stack
of letters from my friend who moved to Missouri when I was the same age.

CQ

Here's a union of the "best/worst gift" topics and the "old junk" topics.

We have an old family joke at gift-giving times.  One family member
sneers to another:

	"So, what did YOU get MOM, something from the THIRD DRAWER ?"

The top draw to the left of the stove was for silverware, next one down
had utensils, then the THIRD DRAWER.  This was always the miscellaneous
junk draw, stuff small enough to fit but random enough to not belong
elsewhere.

At one birthday years ago, one of us hadn't gotten around to getting
someone a present, so hurriedly wrapped something from the third draw
just in time for the party.

Unfortunately, the receiver recognized the object.  But we have a very
silly family (tee hee) so no harm done.  But hence the joke ever since.

/Eric

    re:.11
    
    	My junk drawer has moved from the top drawer to a medium size
    	trunk that I have at the end of my bed. I call it my
    	"Life Box". It has everything in it. From old love letters to
    	old tax forms.
    
    	I'll never throw it out..

    
    							mike

    
      I JUST READ AN ARTICLE IN A MAG. THAT SUGGESTED THAT AT SOME TIME
    IN THE NEAR FUTURE WE MAY NEVER DARE TO THROW ANYTHING AWAY BECAUSE
    IT WILL BE WORTH TO MUCH. 
      EX. OLD CARDBOARD TYPE 3D GLASSES ARE GOING FOR UP TO $25.00
    
    NOW WHERE DID I PUT THOSE THINGS?

    I don't consider myself a "horder".  I do a reasonable spring
    and fall cleaning each year, and get rid of a lot of useless
    stuff.  I am however, a sentimental old sot.  I've gotten rid
    of that extra canopener, tossed that second crockpot, bestowed
    that extra frypan on another member of the family, but I still
    have:
    
    Every love letter I've *ever* received;
    Every *letter* I've ever received from freinds;
    Cards from my 16th, 18th and 21st birthdays;
    Christmas cards from the first year we were married;
    Engagement, wedding and first anniversary cards;
    A scrapbook full of stuff from high school;
    Ticket stubs, dog tags, a piece of sterile gauze;
    Every diary I've ever kept since I was thirteen;
    Papers from college;
    A book I tried to write when I was twelve;
    
    the list goes on....
    
    They're all in a box in the back room, and once in a while
    I go through them and remember all sorts of things I'd thought
    I'd forgotten.  I laugh, and sometimes I cry.  But those
    memories and stories will always be there for me, and for
    my children and maybe even grandchildren.  I couldn't throw
    history away, now could I?
    
    Mary-Michael

I'm an ecology minded sort, but I don't worry about today's garbage lasting for
millions of years, and littering the landscape...  Think about it... Anything
over fifty years old is "antique", and somewhere there's some idiot willing to
pay good money for it! :-)

Jim. 

	Once a year I go through the house from top to bottom 
	and anything I find that hasn't been used, touched, 
	or worn since the last cleaning gets tossed.  

	Kathy

	

    Old treasures mean a lot to me too. And I think it's congenital!
    I have a collection of nails and stuff that belonged to my grandfather!
    Ancient mankind is often characterized as "hunter/gatherer" and
    I know which genes I've got!
    
    I defend my "stuff" against my wife (a toss-it type) by sorting
    it out periodically and giving the boxes labels to make it look
    official!  Besides, that way you remember what is there and can
    more easily find uses for it. [The reason you need sg. just af.
    tossing it is that its memory is fresh in your mind; right?]
    
    Contrariwise, I have also learned to take pleasure in cleaning 
    things out! At work I feel I've "done" a lot if my trash basket is
    full at the end of the day. (And when it gets dumped at 4:00 I feel
    ripped off!)  In the Army you pay for excess weight, so moving is
    often preceeded by a drastic pruning of your accumulations - I think
    that is where I caught this feeling of "accomplishment"!
    
    Finally, maintenance is a byword for me: fix it & file it and you
    won't have to buy another. My favorite things are those that can
    be fixed because they have screws, not rivets, nor (bleah!) those
    bent tabs that break off after a few flexings!
    
    	rmm
    

    I know this topic hasn't be opened in awhile, but what
    the heck:
    
    I saved every letter that my cousin wrote to me from the 
    time we were about 12 years old.  Not too long ago I 
    brought them over to her house and we read them out loud
    to each other.  We've never laughed so hard in all our
    lives!!
    
    To look back at how simple your life seems at 12 compared
    to now.  But I remember how traumatic everything seemed
    to us back then.
    
    It was great fun!!  Saving "old junk" isn't all that bad, 
    it could bring back some wonderful memories some day!
    
    Denise