Learning to organize and prioritize

[Guest guest]

For many of us, to keep a lot of " stuff " is a holdover from being poor. It

makes us feel rich (in a certain kind of way.) It gets ridiculous here at

the house sometimes because I hesitate to throw away catalogues or anything

else printed in color; it 'looks' so valuable to my childhood eyes, when

paper printed in color used to be so very rare.

whoever said one corner, one shelf, one drawer at a time has the right idea

for most people. Usually people who try to do it all at once become

overwhelmed with it and put it all back and thar she blows, all over again. I

have gone into the " Hell " room with the idea of making it the " heaven room, "

and come out eight hours later with only one tiny baggie of thread to throw

away. Ridiculous.

I also like to go to garage sales and I am afraid I will often buy something

becuase I feel sorry for the people who have seven kids all under the age of

eight, or very old folks, or a young couple this summer who had lost their

jobs and had a baby on the way. This is how I have come to be the proud

possesor a brown blanket with fish painted on it, a bunch of small porcelain

clowns with half the paint chipped off, and an entire rather large box of

christmas ornaments each of which has something broken or missing from it. I

am trying to curb this imopulse.

I also 'find' things in alleys. It is absurd and I know it is a holdover

again from the times when we were so without finances. I see something in an

alley and still cannot believe that people 'throw' 'good' things away. This

is how I once possessed a very wobbly potting table (well the woods was good

wood), any number of cracked mitre picture frames, and a rug that smelled

like dog piss, (but had a very beautiful design and only needed to be cleaned

really good, which I did by hand, and then my icky ex mother in law kept

admiring it and I wound up offering to give it to her, and she took it home

like she had won the lottery. She was the clean freek of the universe, if she

had only known the origin of that rug it would be the screech heard round the

world)

Finally some years back, i found what worked the best was to give things away

to those in need, who would actually use what I do not.

-- Sometimes I just fill a box, write " free, take only what you need, " on

the side, and leave it on a corner.

--Food that is still good to go goes to church pantries.

--Clean clothes go to any number of places including dress for success for

welfare mothers training for new work.

-- good baby clothes and clean toys go to churches

-- Anything that might be decent art supplies goes to head start.

--Fabrics, yarns and other like things go to arthritis workshops.

--General books go to used booksellers for free to support their businesses.

--self help and inspirational books go to Salvation army men and family

centers

-- things of higher value might go any number of places, including local NPR

radio station for auction, etc.

--Extra kitchen pots and pans (clean)and worn out cutting boards (clean) and

old phone books go to the art student's league for their sculptors and

weavers to use in their wax and dying works.

-- old car parts go to recycling

-- old cans and jars go to local woodworkers

-- good clean boxes go behind liquor stores where those who are moving will

find them

-- old but good anything else (including shampoo that didn't work out,

luggage, soap, toiletries, misbegotten purchases, clothes in wrong sizes)

goes to the local safe house.

--certain things go to ffriends who I know can use them or would like them

for sentimental reasons.

I put all this stuff together; it usually takes a few hours. I get kind of

reckless, trying not to think too long about it before offering it to someone

else. I get in the van, and just make a 'circle trip' dropping everything off

where it needs to go. It takes about a day and a half total from sorting to

delivering. I feel better at the end than anyone ought to. For lots of

reasons.

If you have a " need list " for a good cause, write to me privately, I might

have it or know someone who does.

I only hope to make you smile today,

ceep G-MOM

In a message dated 2/2/03 8:28:51 PM, Graduate-OSSG writes:

<< >>

>>>>>>price sticker on it that said 19 cents. You know...from the 50's! And

food stuff in the back of the pantry. My goodness there was light corn syrup

that had turned brown. So.....I've been slowly trying to organize things

around here and get rid of old stuff. But it's hard. The " save it, might

need it later " tendency in me is so strong. And I never thought about the

food/stuff connection, but it's there. And strong. That's what I need to

do. One thing at a time. One cupboard at a time. As I turn my head to the

right a bit, I see a cardboard box with old bills, junk mail, etc. Think I

might just file that one box today and that's it. >>>>>>>>>>

[Guest guest]

My husband and my best friend have this affliction and they were never poor.

They feel that they may need it later so are afraid to throw it away.

My mother, on the other hand, grew up dirt poor in Chechlosovakia (matches

meant you were rich). She retired to Atlantic City. At the end of the

summer, people would throw so much away from their summer homes. My mother

became an official " trash picker. " But she did like you. She gave it away.

Especially the toys.

Fay Bayuk -

[Guest guest]

>>>> I also like to go to garage sales and I am afraid I will often buy

something because I feel sorry for the people<<<<

I did this a LOT before (waiting) and during (loosing) phases -- I was

" driven " to go to garage sales every week-end and I didn't want or need

anything so I began to make a " this week-end is for...<___> " cause -- one

week-end I filled up my whole trunk (big trunk) and most of the back seat

with blankets, sheets -- all warm bed clothing and drove to 2 different

bridges and just " dropped it all off " to the homeless. You'd have thought I

put out a pot of gold and I didn't spend a whole 20.00 for all that.

I too set up boxes with labels of stuff I just " can't " throw away (and

probably shouldn't) and bags for clothing and keep everything apart and drop

it off at the most " needed " place that can use the items. Most of it (due to

time) just goes to the thrift store that the non-denominational organization

runs... (clean) so they can sell it and apply the money where needed. Cloths

go to shelters when no one else that I know needs them... the shelters for

alcohol and/or drug addicted men and women (2 different places) are always

in " need " of clothing, coffee pots, tables with 3 legs -- truly almost

anything they do put to good use and I don't get the " guilt's " about tossing

it.

My " garage sale phases " though are such urges that I have to put the limits

on 1 purpose, like the blankets that day -- another day it could be " all

kids cloths pre-school " or " all good wearable jeans for men/women " and just

put my " allowed " garage sale insanity into 1 group of what I will buy that

day and for who and I drop it all off BEFORE I come home!!!

Often I do get so many boxes / bags / in my garage that I'm still " working

on " filling that the cars won't fit in the garage ~smile~ a good indicator

it is TIME to go and distribute all that stuff.

I don't think we are all so strange for wanting to recycle things in

whatever way works best for us and I KNOW it makes it much easier for me to

" toss out " when it isn't going into a trash can but to use by someone else.

Great lists of the needy ceep!!! Good ideas in there...

hugz,

~denise

[Guest guest]

<< I have to put the limits

on 1 purpose, like the blankets that day -- another day it could be " all

kids cloths pre-school " or " all good wearable jeans for men/women " and just

put my " allowed " garage sale insanity into 1 group of what I will buy that

day and for who >>

that is a really good idea. Now let's see, maybe in a few weeks when it gets

warmer, I will look for um, hmmm, maybe cute glasses for us all to put our

protein drinks in! (hye, great idea denise)

love,

ceep

[Guest guest]

OK OK

YOU WIN! WHOAz!

Terri in Temecula

crackers

> dated 1958. We moved into that house in 1962, which means the

crackers were

> 4 y/o when we moved in!

>

> And THAT was the tip of the ice berg.

>

> The freezer had been buried behind boxes since AT LEAST the early

90's. IT

> WAS STILL RUNNING! But they had to remove the door to get

the " food " out.

>

> Don't get me started

>

>