Tuesday, July 5, 2011

My first list of 100 pieces of flotsam, or stuff

["Most people find that stuff does indeed expand to fill the space provided. Do you want to encourage this tendency with the stuff in your house?" pg. 21, Little House on a Small Planet]

“Goodbye to one and all.”

So begins my list of 100 things I can live without that I’ve started in the last of my public school workbooks.


["Good-bye ball glove. Good-bye ball.": photos by GH]

I was inspired to start the list by J. M. Carey, a woman who scouts “for items I can do without” every year or whenever she discovers she “can’t shelve a new book or close a drawer.”

I thought that by writing a few words about items (to be discarded) I’d get it into my head to live with less for good reason.

You can see that the first item, ball glove with ball, has loosely-fitting string around it. The string was tighter in the mid-1980s when I wrapped up the ball and glove to help form a decent pocket. I figure the pocket should be ready by now, but I no longer have any desire to toss a ball with my kids, aged 38 and 40. Anyways, they’re at work most of the time.

Items 2 - 5 are what I call “extras.” The extra radio was in my extra workshop, the one I seldom use now that I have my other shop fully stocked with tools, many of them duplicates. Seven hammers... I think that’s about normal, isn’t it, in case I form a work party to make another workshop?


Please take note of my current sense of humour. Extra glass, mug, and cup. A real dinger, eh!

The two books weigh about 15 pounds in total, and provide information (one was copyrighted in 1984, the other in 1994) about a million places I’ll never visit. Not one word about Port Bruce. How useful is that?


The “Back Roads” text was presented as a gift to someone I don’t know (Really, I don’t know where I got the book.) and I’ll finish with the hand-written note found inside the front cover.

Christmas 1998

You might just find some neat, quiet little place you have yet discovered. Maybe Alberta would be a place to try next. Have fun discovering and don’t forget - think West!

Love ya,
Merry Christmas from the West!

C & J


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Have fun discovering what you can live without and don’t forget - live small!

Please click here for more stuff about stuff.

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