Aparigraha, part 2: de-cluttering

Remember what I said the other day about the coal rooms?

Cue your favorite horror movie music or sound effects.
For the record I do love that the walls of my basement are silver. Not gray. Silver.

If you're not from here, you may not know what coal rooms are. They are exactly what they sound like: rooms in which coal used to be stored. They're kind of great, because you can put all your junk in them and close the door and forget about it. Of course that is also what makes them kind of horrible, because they allow you to think that you don't belong on Hoarders and then one day you go down there and you're like...well.

I do admit it looks pretty well organized, but there are some mystery boxes. Not to mention the two (count them, two) all-in-one printer things, neither of which works perfectly. The local Goodwill has a computer parts and repair shop so that is where those are going to go.

I did give myself a time limit of two hours, which I'm proud to say I came in well under, and I did go through the whole house. That's a basement with two coal rooms, main floor, and top floor with 3 bedrooms.

Here are the goods:

Some of the more interesting items include bag gloves (lower left) from a short stint with kickboxing, groovy light fixture (lower right), nearly full printer ink from the printer returned to my ex-job (ziploc bag center left), planter thing that worked fine at the old apartment, but won't fit on my brick walls (top left, I put books in it for funs!), blue serial mouse (center) and "World's Greatest Teacher" decorative eraser (top right). I love you, former student who gave that to me, but I don't need it to remember that I love you.

These are all going to one of my favorite events: The East End Share Faire. Seriously my main problem with this event is that it only happens twice a year. Things I love about the Share Faire:

1. Free market. Leave what you want to leave, take what you want to take. No judgements.
2. Sometimes there is food.
3. You can bring literally anything.
4. I really mean it. Anything.
5. Including food that you have and just don't like.
6. And bras. Because sometimes your bra doesn't fit anymore.
7. You never know what you'll find.

 I learned two valuable truths while de-stashing:

1. You always have more junk than you think.
2. It's okay not to be ready to get rid of something.

There were a lot, and I do mean a lot, of things that I just wasn't sure about. Can I do something with those curtains? Should I keep the box of bathroom tiles even though I hate my bathroom tile, because I don't know when I'll be able to redo the bathroom, and I might need to patch? Could I alter that top?

Well, it would be nice to be able to toss everything, but sometimes you just can't. The Goodwill, the Salvation Army, the AmVets, they all take donations whenever, so if I change my mind, they can go at a later date. That's like, meta-letting go: letting go of my need to let go of everything right this minute.

I'm all packed and ready to go. I'll be back later with what I've acquired, which will hopefully be far, far less than I am giving away!