Down about Downsizing

A couple of years ago I stuck the camera in a drawer of pens and scissors and such and took a picture. I wish I could tell you that mess is gone, gone, gone. But it's not. All the scissors are from an era when I thought my homemade greeting cards would benefit from those scrapbooking scissors that make different decorative cuts. They didn't.

We are getting rid of stuff, however. When we are filling up the trunk of the car for the thrift store or piling stuff on the sorting table it seems like a lot of stuff. (The sorting table is divided in half. Himself puts things on one half and I use the other. Then, at our convenience, we 'approve' the things and put them in the box for the thrift store or other recipients.) We are processing out lots of stuff this way and every week our recycling pile is huge and our 'pay as you throw' garbage can is stuffed. But when we look around, it looks hopeless.

I get depressed about it. It's not that I mind going through the stuff. It's kind of interesting actually. This week I was shredding old receipts and bank statements and found the receipt for something I'd thrown in the garbage that very day. That was strange.

It's not that I mind trying to find homes for things either . (Although that requires some communication with people that isn't always easy for me.) No, the worst part is that sometimes you feel like you aren't sending the thing to the right home. Should I just throw it away? Is there some specific person I should ask to see if they can use it? Could I sell it? Would it be a perfect thrift store donation? Should I just put it out on the curb and see if someone takes it?

I offered some technical books to old techie friends. This resulting in giving away eight books out of several dozen, one date for listening to jazz with another couple and a couple of lunch dates.

I posted some stuff of the Yahoo group for Austin Freecycle. This is a deal where people post things they will give away or want to acquire for free. I have learned that you give a deadline and then review all the e-mails trying to find a good home for the stuff with someone who might actually pick it up. It is sort of depressing. You offer an old digital camera that needs a battery (the ones I have for it won't take a charge and it uses only special rechargeable ones). And has some other issues. And someone writes that they want it to take pictures of their grandkids for Easter. This weekend. You know they will be disappointed by having to find a battery (if they can afford it and find one) and get it charged by Sunday. I wrote all the issues for each item as clearly as possible. And wrote, as clearly as I could, that I would wait until Thursday evening to decide among the requests. But people don't read that carefully. They fire off a response and say they can pick it up now. I also try not to be too critical of spelling, grammar, etc. One person wants the cameras. She says she is 'a Camera Conasour.' Does bad spelling make a person a bad owner for the cameras? One of the cameras I'm offering I described as an 'antique digital camera.' A guy responded who is a camera collector. It made me wonder whether I should offer him my Polaroid Land 100, a camera I'll never use again but have kept for sentimental reasons. I received that camera for Christmas in the early sixties and took hundreds of shots with it, particularly of my nieces when they were babies. They are 36 and 38 now.

There is entirely too much thought involved in this downsizing thing. And it's getting me down.