What: "'Tis the Gift to be Simple, 'Tis the Gift to be Free.." of these mid-century cocktail shakers.
Origin: Addictive Behavior. Hello, my name is "A", and I'm a tagsaleaholic. (Hello, "A")
How long kept: Easily 20 years.
Usage: Not so much.
Why kept: Back in the day, I thought I might use these as decoration. (They Might Be Useful.) See confession.
Destination: Housing Works, in yet another of the ever shallower shopping bag stash. (Where They Might Actually Be Useful in one of Housing Works' clever displays!)
Confession: They are Cool/Vintage, yet my appetite for kitsch in my kitch is much lower these days. When I checked to see if They Might Be Worth Something, I found that they weren't: in the event I ever miss these items, I can buy back respectable replicas on eBay for under 10 bucks.
Let the shedding of unused tag sale treasures begin!
Monday, July 19, 2010
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I'd have had a hard time letting go of these. I still can't take the kitsch out of kitchen!
ReplyDeleteThey were a little sticky.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't hurt that they've been in a cabinet too high for me to reach (or even see into) for at least 10 years; clearly, I already didn't miss them!
I have to say, I haven't missed a single thing I've gotten rid of during the course of this project. There has only been one memorable "Oh, crap," moment, when I went to look for a pair of flat ankle boots...which, as it turns out, I had kept.
One of the things that Randy Frost talks about in *Stuff* is that a subset of people with true hoarding issues feel the most distress as they consider getting rid of something...and then later on, after they've tossed something, they can't even relate to that original level of distress; it's pretty much gone.
The thought that got my @$$ off the sofa yesterday to add more candle holders to the donation bag was reading about one theoretical source of (true) hoarding: some people wound up with gigantic mounds of stuff because they would avoid the distress involved when they thought about discarding individual things.
A powerful theory.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more mid-century treasures!
Very interesting, and funny, what you think will "stress" you re discarding (as, meanwhile, the stress, and "stuff," accumulates). Today I am 180 degrees from your fun kitsch--have been in the basement with old metal screws and all kinds of strange stuff once saved for future assemblage art. It's hard to let go of those dreams--I still have them. I found myself dusting off the screws and saving them, so clearly, I am still not "saved"!
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you're fine! (And I've been in your house! I know that you're not walking through Collyer Brothers "goat paths" described in the book.) I'm guessing that you've got space for those dreams.
Frost talks about the cost of keeping things. (In the past, I've considered this mainly in terms of maintenance -- a garment with a zillion pleats that must be professionally cleaned and pressed, for example.)
As I think and re-think the point of this whole exercise, it really is to examine my relationship with stuff and why we hang onto it. Some things are worth hanging onto.
Others, not so much.