It's Time Once Again For Crap Reduction

Sometimes I think of Crap Reductions (also known as Large Item Pickup Days courtesy of Alameda County Waste Management) as being exercises in weight loss: if you jettison 200 pounds of detritus in your garage you win. This time it was also a question of volume, so the eight broken chairs that I have not gotten around to fixing (mainly because the most fixable chairs are bloody uncomfortable when fully functioning, but also because IKEA has perfectly comfortable and generally well-designed chairs for a Jackson) win more points than simply their weight.

Of course many people see Large Item Pickup Days as Crap Acquisition Days (aka Holy Moly! Free Stuff!). It is amazing to watch the cars materialize out of nowhere (we aren't advertising). And, frankly, I am more than happy to see fixable and perfectly functioning yet obsolete stuff end up in good homes. For us this especially meant baby and toddler stuff that would not withstand another little one without significant work, which, when you calculate the time it would take, is probably not worth doing (how many hours to fix that mass-produced children's rocking chair that Amalia has outgrown? More than would justify keeping it, when another one could be had cheaply when needed).

Also, there were the small items that were white elephant gifts: tacky stuff from distant relatives that would not be worth the time to post on eBay and such like. Fortunately the demographics in our area jump on the frilly, overly gold stuff that folks assumed we needed (a silver-plated domed butter dish? For an olive-oil gobbling family of wops? Never used. Picked up within ten minutes of my setting it out there).

Of course the question that begs an answer is: how much of this stuff will appear in someone else's Crap Reduction Effort? It will, naturally, be picked up by a third scavenger, and the cycle goes on.

Anyway, I highly recommend getting rid of scads of junk. Remember: anything you no longer have will not need to go with you next time you move. That thought will make me sleep extra well tonight.