Old notes

[cdave]

Bit late for a What I Did At The Weekend (Went to Caption (Oxford small press comics convention) on Saturday, and down south to visit parental units on the Sunday) post, but one of the things I did was clear some of my junk out of a parental loft.

[Poll #1446736]

I found that I had 3 cardboard boxes of "school stuff" and 2 plastic crates of "University stuff". I didn't have much time to go through it, but managed to sling a few bits (such as all my sixth form era invites to University open days). While I do like the odd doodle in the margin, and in joke scrawled on the cover of a notebook, I'm really not sure I need to keep quite this volume of stuff.

Given that I haven't looked at it in years, and am unlikely to do so in the near future, I probably should just sling most of it. But it's so final. This stuff, as useless as it is, is literally irreplaceable. I managed to avoid picking up a "bargin" in IKEA the other day on the basis that I'd rather pay full price when I need it, than hang onto something that just takes up space. But this stuff is my own hand.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I have a very few representative samples; not of notes, but a couple of childhood essays. The rest has all long since been ditched, along with textbooks (other than a couple of lasting interest).

I have a Really Useful Box full of sentimental claptrap of absolutely no utility or beauty; my rule is that I won't to keep more than will fit in that box. Though much of what is in that box can be scanned and discarded and I do have that as a future plan. I also have a couple of special objects that are not in that box either because they're too precious and live with my jewellery, or because I'm so proud of them they are actually on display.

My equivalent of the school notebooks was a selection of trophies that I won as a child in maths contests. My mum cleared them out, and some years later I gave them to The Year of the Teledu to use as prizes.

Flylady has loads of posts on the stuff people keep. Amazing numbers of human teeth, for one thing.

But my serious clutter problem isn't the utterly useless and ugly, it's the stuff that's marginally useful, or that is decorative but that I don't have space to display it.

[cdave]

The last bit sounds like me and presents.

What's the statute of limitations on a unneeded gift?

[cdave]

To clarify, as much as I may have loved getting a gift, I've got a fair few now that are in a bag with about 20 other things I don't have time to play with.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I think it's worth weeding games and books annually, and critically appraising; if a computer game is more than a couple of years old and you haven't played it, you are most unlikely to ever get round to it, for example.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

For actual rubbish, the stuff only stays in our house for days: I normally spend some of my first day home after Christmas eBaying, for example. My mother gave me a hideous kitchen ornament last year with the words 'please don't sell this or give it away, now, will you?' So I binned it as soon as her back was turned.