Unclutterer

1. Posted by Another Deb - 06/10/2009

   After re-reading the Living Simple=Simply Living comments about how few possessions we have in dorms, I did a mental inventory of what items I had in my college dorm/apartments that I still have thirty years later.

   Aside from my Swiss Army knife and a few photographs, I own none of the original items. Even the items I owned five years out of college are long gone.

   Perhaps I moved more than normal after finishing college (15 times in 30 years) and replaced a lot of purged items each time. The collection continued to grow with each move and now seems to be overwhelmingly career- related with books, files, computer equipment and collections of “science stuff” for lessons. (Oh, to have been a math teacher..)

   I can only imagine how much stuff an entire family accumulates in thirty years nowadays. Anyone else still working with original possessions from far, far back?

2. Posted by OogieM - 06/11/2009

   Interesting, I have clothes that I still wear that I’ve owned for 30 years. I even have some inherited clothes (sweaters) that I wear regularly that I am the 3rd person to own them. I believe they are around 70 years old but I really do not know. My main cooking skillet I use nearly every night is in it’s 3rd or 4th generation now, I inherited it from my mother who got it from her grandmother who I think also got it from someone else. I know it was made in the early 1800′s. My big soup pot is at least 30 years old, maybe more and I use it regularly as well. We just replaced the rice cooker, the old one was 20 years old but had finally quit. Ditto for the toaster, we got a used one from a friend that was 5 years old when we got it and we’ve had it several years already. I have pictures and photographs that are over 100 years old. Actually, looking around the house, we’ve got a mix of stuff, maybe 30-40% is stuff older than 5 years and a portion is really old. The newer stuff is what breaks, dies or has to get replaced. Nothing made in the last 20 years is nearly as well made as the really old stuff.

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